Islamabad: In a heated debate in National Assembly on Thursday the politicians from both benches voiced their concerns and opinions on the methods to form committee to draft the terms of References (TORs) in Panama Papers case.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi began his speech by stating that despite the yesterday’s decision of having six members each on behalf of the government and the opposition, now the plan for TORs committee says that there will be eight people. He severely opposed it and called it a one-sided decision on the government’s part. After a much heated discussion, the clause of including eight people was finally rescinded back to having six people from both sides in the final committee.
Shah Mehmood also raised questions for Muttahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) and said that MQM had been on the side of the opposition in the proceedings so far but yesterday members of MQM went to meet Ishaq Dar instead of coming to the leader of the opposition Khursheed Shah to have their reservations addressed. He said that the opposition cannot trust a member who only expresses his affiliation in words; they need to see the actual input and output.
In response to this statement by Shah Mehmood, Asif Husnain of MQM stood up and said that MQM has always stood beside the opposition. He said that all earlier meetings have been attended by the members of MQM. Media said that we are not part of the opposition, which is wrong.
Khawaja Asif and Khawaja Saad Rafique spoke on the government’s behalf and said that MQM is part of the parliament and hence they have no issues in accepting the demand of having six people in the committee instead of eight.
Mehmood Khan Achakzai stood up and said that all the departments in Pakistan have become infected by corruption and there needs to be a department especially made to counter this rising instance of corruption. He also said that playing blame game has become order of the day instead of finding solutions to the problems.
The speaker invited members of the parliament in his chambers after the session ended for further discussion and formulation of strategies.
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