ISLAMABAD: Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique said the government wanted to finalize Terms of Reference (TORs) and set up an inquiry commission in consultation with the opposition.
Talking to media after meeting of a parliamentary committee, the minister said the committee members should find a way which was acceptable for both sides.
The government and opposition members here on Tuesday in the eighth meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Panama Papers held further discussions on documents submitted by both sides. The minister said the desire to hold accountability of a single person was not acceptable, adding target of two political parties was only the personality of Prime Minister and his family.
He said these parties while holding dialogue were also talking about launching protest. Saad said some parties wanted to include terms which were not suitable for democracy. Dictatorial thinking of anybody would not be allowed to be imposed, he added. He advised opposition to avoid playing role of a judge and plaintiff at the same time.
Names of sons of Prime Minister had come up in Panama papers so they would appear before the commission, he said adding insistence that name of a person whose name was not in the Panama papers was useless. He said it had become a practice to paint Prime Minister of the country in a bad light.
He said Panama papers leaks was an incident, while the law for the inquiry commission regarding would be permanent, adding the government had ways to make a law for formation of a commission. During the meeting, Senator Ilyas Ahmad Bilour circulated among members of the committee, copies of a document titled ” the additional powers of the commission”.
The government side also circulated among the members copies of adocument about terms of reference of the inquiry commission. The committee generally discussed the bill titled “The Commissions of Inquiry Act, 2016” drafted by the government side last week along with proposed ToRs of the two sides.
Senators Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Aitzaz Ahsan, Mir Hasil Khan Bizenjo, Muhammad Ali Saif and Ilyas Ahmad Bilour and members of the National Assembly Zahid Hamid, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Akram Khan Durrrani, Anusha Rehman Khan Advocate, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Hussain Qureshi, Sahibzada Tariq Ullah and Ch Tariq Bashir Cheema attended the meeting as members of the committee. The next meeting of the committee will be held with mutual consultation of the two sides.
