ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zaradri has snubbed Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, rejecting his suggestion to stay in the parliamentary committee formed to frame terms of reference (ToRs) for the Panama Leaks’ probe, The Nation has learnt reliably.
The PPP chairman chaired the party core committee meeting on Thursday last in Islamabad regarding the party’s future strategy on the Panama Leaks’ investigation. The meeting was attended by senior leaders of the party.
Sources in PPP told The Nation that Khursheed Shah tried to convince the young party chairman that PPP should be part of parliamentary committee on ToRs while another senior PPP parliamentarian Ijaz Jhakrani from Sindh also endorsed the suggestion of the opposition leader.
However, the PPP chairman flatly rejected the suggestion of both senior leaders and said: “PPP has decided to quit so we will no more be part of the committee.” They said that all other leaders from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa welcomed the decision of the party chairman.
Sources said Khursheed Shah was not satisfied with the decision of chairman to leave the parliamentary committee on ToRs and was giving arguments in favour of its suggestion till end of the meeting. But the chairman intervened and said: “Shah Sahab, I have taken the decision and now we will not look back.” The chairman asked Senator Aitzaz Ahsan to inform the media regarding party decision in this regard. He also said PPP was with democracy and will also be with it in future.
After the meeting, Aitzaz Ahsan quoted Bilawal as saying that PPP has decided to quit parliamentary committee which was set up for formulation of TORs for investigations into the Panama papers. He also announced that his party would file reference for the disqualification of Prime Minister and Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif.
Earlier, Syed Khursheed Shah also stopped the chairman from giving any statement that President of Pakistan can be from minorities in a meeting a few months back. However, Bilawal Bhutto ignored his suggestion in this regard and spoke aloud that President of the country could be from minority and he and his party faced criticism over the statement.
When The Nation contacted Ijaz Jhakrani, he said that he cannot share details of the committee meeting. However, Jhakrani said that he will not deny that Shah and he were not in favour of quitting the parliamentary committee on ToRs.