ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Finance on Monday decided to discuss the Panama Papers issue on May 17.
The committee met here with Qaisar Ahmed Sheikh in the chair, who directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to give a detailed briefing on the issue in next meeting.
Earlier, the committee members from the opposition pointed out that the Panama Papers issue was not included in the agenda of the today’s meeting despite the decision to that effect taken in the last meeting.
Asad Umar of Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) said the committee should discuss the Panama Papers issue first and then take up other matters. Different institutions including FBR and State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) should brief the committee on the issue, he added.
Jehangir Khan Tarin, also of PTI, said the matter should be taken in the larger interest of the nation.
Dr Nafisa Shah of Pakistan Peoples Party suggested that the opposition and the government should sit together to develop consensus on the Terms of References for the judicial commission to probe the Panama Papers issue because names of people belonging to opposition and non-public sector had also been revealed in the Papers.
Mian Abdul Mannan of Pakistan Muslim Leagur-Nawaz (PML-N) said as the Prime Minister had already written a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) to form a judicial commission so the matter should not be discussed by the committee till the receipt of the CJP’s response.
The committee also decided to discuss “The Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Bill, 2016, “The Companies (Appointment of Legal Advisors) (Amendment) Bill, 2016, and “The Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (Amendment) Bill, 2016 in its next meeting.
The meeting was also attended by Muhammad Pervaiz Malik,Shaza Fatima Khawaja and Syed Mustafa Mehmud.
