ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari continues taunting Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif as he struggles to fight his way out of the Panama leaks scandal.

Yesterday, Bilawal criticised Prime Minister Sharif for alleged reluctance to seriously investigate the Panama Papers. “What does (the) PM have to hide? Instead of forming commission for Panama Papers he asked SC (Supreme Court) to probe all finance from (Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali) Jinnah to present day,” the PPP chief tweeted.

Earlier, he had said, “PM is yet to present himself before the parliament and explain himself. He should follow his own advice and resign.”

Last day, Sharif in his televised address to the nation announced his government had decided to formally ask the Chief Justice of Pakistan to set up a judicial commission for investigations into Panama Papers leak. The PM said he was ready to quit if found guilty.

However, the formation of the inquiry commission to probe Panama Papers allegations against the Sharif family will face delay as Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali is in Turkey on a week-long visit. The Chief Justice will return on May 1.

Acting Chief Justice Saqib Nisar believes that since the letter by the government was sent to Justice Jamali, only he would decide on the matter on return.

The proposed commission could seek assistance of any international audit firm and forensic experts for the investigation.

Bilawal’s tirade against the PM is in sharp contrast to Syed Khurshid Shah – the leader of the opposition in National Assembly - who lauded the PM for accepting the opposition’s major demand of writing to the Chief Justice for a probe into the scandal.

Shah said the opposition parties were unanimous that the PM should write to the Chief Justice and the PM had done well to accept this demand. The opposition parties, including the PPP, still want the government to agree on the terms of reference.

The Panama Papers are an unprecedented leak of 11.5m files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca.

The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The ICIJ then shared them with a large network of international partners.

The documents show the myriad ways in which the rich can exploit secretive offshore tax regimes. Twelve national leaders are among 143 politicians, their families and close associates from around the world known to have been using offshore tax havens.

Among national leaders with offshore wealth are Nawaz Sharif, Ayad Allawi, ex-interim prime minister and former vice-president of Iraq; Petro Poroshenko, President of Ukraine; Alaa Mubarak, son of Egypt’s former President; and the Prime Minister of Iceland, Sigmundur Davio Gunnlaugsson.

Sharif’s bears the brunt as his three children – Hussain Nawaz Sharif, Hassan Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz Sharif – were named in the leaks.

This is not the first big test for Sharif as in 2014, the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf pushed him for resignation when chief Imran Khan led a marathon sit-in in front of the parliament.

And now, Khurshid Shah has disclosed Prime Minister Sharif had decided to quit in 2014 amid the sit-in but the PPP convinced him to stay on.
“Nawaz Sharif had nearly succumbed to the pressure created in the wake of PTI sit-in and was ready to step down but the PPP talked him out of it,” he claimed.

Bilawal has been in the meanwhile trying to bring all the opposition parties together for a broader alliance against corruption.

Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmed – who met Bilawal last day – said the PPP leader wanted all the opposition parties united against corruption.

“Formation of parliamentary committee on Panama leaks is not his priority (unlike some PPP leaders who advocate for such a probe). He wants all the opposition parties on one page,” Ahmed said, appreciating the potential of the young PPP chief.

The AML leader said he had misunderstood Bilawal. “He has proven me wrong. He is a different man and we are in for friendship,” the flamboyant lawmaker added.

Prime Minister Sharif himself has decided to launch a public contact campaign from this week to deal with the opposition’s pressure.

He will begin the public contact drive from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and in the second phase of the campaign, the PM will undertake visits of several districts of Sindh.

Despite Bilawal’s seemingly hostile posture, the PPP has mainly been lenient to Sharif as compared to the PTI – who are adamant to ‘punish’ the premier.