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Focus on Nawaz may dent opposition’s unity
By Ansar Abbasi
June 19, 2016
ISLAMABAD: Unity among opposition parties following the PanamaLeaks may face a dent if the PPP and PTI continue to insist on including the name of Nawaz Sharif in the ToRs for the judicial probe as at least four political parties are not convinced on insisting on this very point when the premier is not directly named in the Panama Papers.
Additionally, the re-appearance of Dr Tahirul Qadri on the political chessboard and growing chances of 2014-like protest and sit-in politics by the PTI after Ramazan to force Nawaz Sharif to quit on the Panama Papers issue, may also cause cracks among the opposition parties.
Sources said that Jamaat-e-Islami, MQM, Awami National Party and Qaumi Watan Party have their reservations about the Nawaz-centric ToRs but for the sake of the joint oppositions’ platform, none of them is making it an issue right now. However, the dissenting voices have started coming out in public.
Some of these political parties during the oppositions’ meetings held recently have said that instead of making it a Nawaz Sharif-centric case, focus should be on the principle of probing all those named in the Panama Papers or in other offshore companies or in cases of bank loan write off and ill-gotten foreign wealth.
Sources said that it was suggested by one of the political parties’ representatives to leave it to the Judicial Commission to decide if it wants to probe family members of any person named in the Panama Papers including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has not been directly named in the Panama Papers. This suggestion from one of the opposition parties was, however, strongly rejected by the vocal and influential PPP and PTI representatives, who say that Nawaz Sharif’s name must be included in the ToRs.
“For the sake of the oppositions’ unity, we are not making it an issue,” an opposition voice included in the ToRs committee said, adding that the Panama Papers have become more an issue of political point-scoring than pursuing the agenda of checking corruption.
Aftab Sherpao — who is though no more a member of the opposition committee, still occasionally interacts with the opposition parties on the issue — reportedly also supports the inclusion of only those names in the ToRs which are reflected in the Panama Papers.
MQM’s Farooq Sattar, however, opted to express his views in public. In a TV show on Friday, Farooq Sattar said that it should not look like as if the ToRs are being formulated only to target one person.
Initially, Aitzaz Ahsan had indicated that the opposition may not insist on including the name of Nawaz Sharif in the ToRs but his statement caused a strong reaction particularly from within the PTI and among some PPP leaders from Punjab. Such a strong reaction from within the PTI and PPP led to their strict stance on the inclusion of Nawaz Sharif’s name in the ToRs.
On Monday, the opposition parties’ representatives will hold a press conference to explain how the government is non-serious in the formulation of consensus ToRs for a judicial commission. The government-opposition parleys on ToRs are facing a deadlock mainly because of the government’s reluctance to include Nawaz Sharif’s name in the ToRs and the opposition’s insistence that the probe should start from Nawaz Sharif.
By Ansar Abbasi
June 19, 2016
ISLAMABAD: Unity among opposition parties following the PanamaLeaks may face a dent if the PPP and PTI continue to insist on including the name of Nawaz Sharif in the ToRs for the judicial probe as at least four political parties are not convinced on insisting on this very point when the premier is not directly named in the Panama Papers.
Additionally, the re-appearance of Dr Tahirul Qadri on the political chessboard and growing chances of 2014-like protest and sit-in politics by the PTI after Ramazan to force Nawaz Sharif to quit on the Panama Papers issue, may also cause cracks among the opposition parties.
Sources said that Jamaat-e-Islami, MQM, Awami National Party and Qaumi Watan Party have their reservations about the Nawaz-centric ToRs but for the sake of the joint oppositions’ platform, none of them is making it an issue right now. However, the dissenting voices have started coming out in public.
Some of these political parties during the oppositions’ meetings held recently have said that instead of making it a Nawaz Sharif-centric case, focus should be on the principle of probing all those named in the Panama Papers or in other offshore companies or in cases of bank loan write off and ill-gotten foreign wealth.
Sources said that it was suggested by one of the political parties’ representatives to leave it to the Judicial Commission to decide if it wants to probe family members of any person named in the Panama Papers including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has not been directly named in the Panama Papers. This suggestion from one of the opposition parties was, however, strongly rejected by the vocal and influential PPP and PTI representatives, who say that Nawaz Sharif’s name must be included in the ToRs.
“For the sake of the oppositions’ unity, we are not making it an issue,” an opposition voice included in the ToRs committee said, adding that the Panama Papers have become more an issue of political point-scoring than pursuing the agenda of checking corruption.
Aftab Sherpao — who is though no more a member of the opposition committee, still occasionally interacts with the opposition parties on the issue — reportedly also supports the inclusion of only those names in the ToRs which are reflected in the Panama Papers.
MQM’s Farooq Sattar, however, opted to express his views in public. In a TV show on Friday, Farooq Sattar said that it should not look like as if the ToRs are being formulated only to target one person.
Initially, Aitzaz Ahsan had indicated that the opposition may not insist on including the name of Nawaz Sharif in the ToRs but his statement caused a strong reaction particularly from within the PTI and among some PPP leaders from Punjab. Such a strong reaction from within the PTI and PPP led to their strict stance on the inclusion of Nawaz Sharif’s name in the ToRs.
On Monday, the opposition parties’ representatives will hold a press conference to explain how the government is non-serious in the formulation of consensus ToRs for a judicial commission. The government-opposition parleys on ToRs are facing a deadlock mainly because of the government’s reluctance to include Nawaz Sharif’s name in the ToRs and the opposition’s insistence that the probe should start from Nawaz Sharif.