Pak. opposition agrees to include MQM in parliament inquiry committee

Opposition parties in Pakistan have decided to give representation to the Muttahida Qami Movement (MQM) in the joint parliamentary committee set up to formulate terms of reference (ToR) for the proposed Panama Commission.

The MQM wasn't earlier given the representation in the twelve-member committee-comprising six members each from the opposition and treasury benches following differences with the opposition parties.

The differences were based on a misunderstanding, the leaders said and were later, resolved in a meeting held in the chamber of Leader of the Opposition, PPP's Syed Khursheed Shah.

Shah after the meeting said that the MQM was very much part of the opposition benches in both houses of Parliament.

"Therefore, we have decided to take the party on board on the issue of Panama leaks," the Dawn quoted him as saying.

He added that MQM's Senator Mohammad Ali Khan Saif will now sit on the committee in place of Aftab Sherpao, who has voluntarily left the committee.

The Pakistan Tehreek-Insaaf (PTI) party had until Thursday opposed the inclusion of the MQM.

PTI's parliamentary leader, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, said, "From day one, MQM was part of the opposition when we first proposed our set of ToR for the investigation into Panama leaks."

Later, he said that the MQM due to some misunderstanding had distanced itself from the combined opposition.

Talking about the misunderstanding, Qureshi said the MQM had argued that the opposition parties were only targeting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family in the background of Panama Papers.

Meanwhile, Dr. Farooq Sattar, who was also present during the meeting, said the Panama Papers had given a bad name to politics and demanded long-term measures to be taken to root out corruption from the country and create a permanent institution for accountably.