ISLAMABAD: The government on Saturday laid reworked terms of reference (ToR) before the combined opposition, which sought some time to consult amongst themselves and their leadership before responding to the fresh proposals.

“The government side circulated ... reformulated ToR which correlated [with] the ToR proposed by the joint opposition with relevant provisions of various laws,” read the official statement issued after the meeting.

Barrister Mohammad Ali Saif, the MQM representative in the Parliamentary Committee on Panama Papers, told Dawn that the government had asked the opposition to reword their original ToR, but the opposition had instead proposed that the government should redraft the document themselves and share it with the committee.

That reworked draft was laid before the body on Saturday, Mr Saif said, adding that things were heading in “a positive direction” and that there was “no cause for despondency”.

Though the hour-long meeting was held behind closed doors, leaders from both sides avoided using the word ‘deadlock’ to describe the status of the talks when they emerged from the huddle.

Opposition seeks time to consider fresh draft; Saad Rafique insists Panamagate-inspired legislation shouldn’t be Panama-specific

While Aitzaz Ahsan — who was one of the main authors of the opposition’s ToR — said that “progress had been made to a certain extent”, Shah Mehmood Qureshi repeated the mantra that “halaat joun kay toun hain”, or “things are still the same”, every time he was asked if there was a deadlock.

Accompanied by the Awami National Party’s Ilyas Bilour, Jamaat-i-Islami’s Sahibzada Tariqullah and Pakistan Muslim League-Q leader Tariq Bashir Cheema, Mr Qureshi told reporters the committee had decided that the opposition would respond to the government’s submission at their next meeting on Tuesday.

Both sides’ aim, Mr Qureshi said, was to arrive at a consensus over the ToR so that a new law could be drafted under which the Panamagate inquiry would be conducted.

When asked whether they would be exceeding the 15-day timeframe envisioned by the parliamentary resolution through which the committee was constituted, Mr Qureshi said they would prefer to stay within the stipulated timeframe. “However, if some difficulty arises, we can talk it out,” he said.

Mr Cheema noted that exceeding the stipulated timeframe in such cases was “a routine matter”, indicating that if more time was needed to reach a decision, it would be sought.

“The opposition will hold consultations on Monday after obtaining a legal opinion [on the government-proposed ToR],” Mr Qureshi said.

Before the meeting began, both sides — plus Syed Khursheed Shah — met National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq in his chambers. Explaining the context behind this meeting, opposition leaders said that Mr Shah had communicated his concerns to the speaker following the last committee meeting, after hearing that negotiations had been ‘deadlocked’.

Talking to the media after the opposition’s press talk, Khawaja Saad Rafique clarified that the last meeting had to be postponed due to the prime minister’s ill-health and there was no deadlock, as was being claimed, between the two sides. “Discussions are being held in a cordial atmosphere and the committee is discharging its responsibility effectively,” he said.

“The government never withdrew its original ToR, nor did the Supreme Court reject the same,” he said, refuting the opposition’s stance that the chief justice’s reservations with the government-drafted ToR constituted a rejection of that draft.

“The government doesn’t want any concessions, neither for any government personality nor their families. This is not a give-and-take, it is a legal matter.”

Mr Rafique said that the government wanted a law that would hold for all times to come and apply to offshore companies outside of Panama, as well as written-off loans and other such matters.

“We are ready to make a new law, but its name should be generic. It should not be specific to a certain incident,” he said. In the first draft of ToR drawn up by the opposition, it had been suggested that a new law called the Panama Papers Inquiry and Trial Act be drafted for the purposes of this inquiry.

He also clarified that the specific queries that were posed by the opposition in the questionnaires submitted to the government were applicable at the cross-examination stage.

“This is not the only matter at hand; the government has a lot to do and we want to discharge this responsibility so we can move on with our work,” he concluded.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2016