ISLAMABAD: Opposition party leaders were meeting for a second time on Tuesday to form consensus on a joint strategy for a proposed judicial investigation of disclosures from the Panama Papers linking several Pakistanis, including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s children, to offshore companies.
Opposition leaders Afrasiab Khattak, Qamar Zaman Karia, and Sheikh Rasheed had reached the residence of the leader of the opposition in the Senate, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, around noon.
Sources told that leaders from the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) would not attend the meeting today. The sources said that MQM leaders have already put forward their party’s position on the matter, Geo reported.
Awami Muslim Leage (AML) leader Sheikh Rasheed said that four key parties of the opposition were united in calling for the resignation of the prime minister in the wake of disclosures from the Panama papers.
He said that these four parties could mobilise people on the streets against the government if needed.
On Monday, opposition parties remained divided on Terms of Reference (ToRs) for the proposed judicial commission to probe the Panama Papers and whether to call for the premier to step down.
The meeting of opposition parties including PPP, PTI, JI, ANP, MQM and BNP-M was held at the residence of Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan in a bid to develop consensus on the ToRs of the inquiry commission.
A statement issued late on Monday night said the meeting of opposition parties set up a joint committee to devise ToRs and would meet again today.
The Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had formed a six-member delegation led by Shah Mehmood Qureshi to represent the party. Its members included Jahangir Tareen Khan, Asad Umar, Hamid Khan, Arif Alvi and Atif Khan. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) also attended the meeting on Monday.
The opposition had called for the meeting to discuss a plan of action to deal with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s alleged links to offshore companies named in the Panama Papers — an unprecedented leak of 11.5 million files from an offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca.
Leaked confidential documents spanning over nearly 40 years that spell out the extensive use of tax havens by politicians, world leaders, and celebrities to launder money and evade taxes through one of the most secretive companies the Panamaian law firm Mossack Fonseca, had taken the world by storm.
Many Pakistanis have also been named in their revelations.
The documents identify many Pakistani business tycoons and politicians including late two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as well certain members of the ruling Sharif family (excluding PM Nawaz Sharif and his brother Chief Minister of Punjab Shahbaz Sharif) to have use tax havens to hide their wealth.
