FAZAL SHER

ISLAMABAD: ‘The Panama Papers Inquiries Bill, 2016’ moved by the members of opposition parties hit another snag on Friday due to the absence of majority of the movers of the bill from the meeting of a Senate panel.

The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice, which met with Senator Mohammad Javed Abbasi in the chair, wanted to discuss ‘The Panama Papers Inquiries Bill, 2016’ but Senator Babar Awan insisted that the committee cannot discuss the bill in the absence of most of the movers.

The Panama Papers Inquiries Bill was moved by 47 members of opposition parties, including those from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Awami National Party (ANP), Balochistan National Party Awami (BNP-A), Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM).

Babar Awan staged a walkout when the chairman of the committee asked Senator Aitzaz Ahsan to give a clause-by-clause reading of the bill.

However, Ahsan insisted on the original bill, moved by opposition parties to be taken up without any amendment.

The opposition parties, especially the PPP, during the previous meeting of the committee had proposed to bring amendments in the bill in order to include proposals of ANP regarding the inclusion of offshore companies by other individuals.

Ahsan expressed serious reservations that the members and movers were informed as late as on Thursday night for such an important legislation.

ANP Senator Shahi Syed said that his party’s position is clear regarding amendment in the bill and it strictly adheres to its stance that underscores the need for making all offshore companies part of the bill.

The bill should be named ‘The Panama Papers and all Offshore Companies Inquiries Bill,’ he suggested, adding if his party’s proposals are not included in the bill, it will not support the legislation.

Later, Aitzaz Ahsan, Saeed Ghani, Taj Haider and other senators brought Senator Awan back to the meeting to resume the proceedings.

When Ahsan was about to start reading of the bill, Awan said, “We are not sitting here to injure spirit of the Constitution, so the bill should not be discussed in the absence of the movers.”

On this, other members including Senator Farooq H Naek and Senator Saifullah Magsi said that the reservations raised by Senator Awan are valid; therefore, the Chairman Senate should be requested for extension to discuss the bill in its next meeting.

The committee, however, decided that the Chairman Senate would be requested for 20 days to discuss the bill and the next meeting of the committee would be held on Dec 8. All the members and movers would be informed regarding meeting in advance to follow due course of law. Earlier, responding to members’ reservations, the chairman of the committee said that all the members of the committee were issued notices and they were also telephonically contacted.

He said that opposition members, who moved the bill, are not ready to discuss the bill as half of movers had moved the court in this regard. Senator Ayesha Raza Farooq said the legislation should not be discriminatory and it should not target a single person. “We need to legislate for accountability not to target a specific person,” she added. Senator Saeed Ghani said the government itself has written a letter to the Supreme Court to constitute a commission for probing the matter. “The bill does not aim to target a single person, but is meant just to support the government,” he added.

Federal Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid said that opposition is not ready to read the bill clause-by-clause and wants to pass it directly to the House. The opposition senators and movers of the bill, including Taj Haider, Aitzaz Ahsan, Shahi Syed, Saeed Ghani, Rehman Malik, Saleem Mandviwalla, Babar Awan, Saleem Zia, Ayesha Raza Farooq and Muzaffar Hussain Shah, and senior officials of the Ministry of Law and Justice attended the meeting.