ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee will take up on Tuesday the opposition`s controversial bill seeking formation of a judicial commission to investigate the Panama Papers leaks.

The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice headed by Javed Abbasi of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz is taking up the bill at a time when the Supreme Court has already announced that it will itself prepare the terms of reference (ToR) for the proposed commission to probe offshore companies set up by hundreds of Pakistanis, including the children of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, as revealed by the Panama Papers.

The bill Panama Papers Inquiries Act 2016 had been introduced by the opposition in the Senate on Sept 26 af ter it managed to defeat the government in the voting by a margin of 13 votes.The government has already rejected the bill as `infructuous and useless` and sources said the law ministry would again oppose it.

Senator Saeed Ghani of the Pakistan Peoples Party told Dawn that the opposition would continue to press for the passage of the bill from parliament, saying the Supreme Court could not stop parliament from doing legislation.

He said it was true that the apex court had announced that it would constitute a one-man commission to investigate the Panamagate issue, but under what law the commission would be given powers to hold the probe and suggest punishment.

The PPP senator said the opposition`s bill would facilitate investigation and provide sentences for those found guilty of setting up offshore companies through corruption and money laundering. Mr Ghani vowed that the opposition would force the government to get the bill passed from the committee as wellas parliament.

The opposition, which has been accusing the government of dragging its feet on the Panamagate issue, had itself sought deferment of the bill from the Senate committee last month.

At the outset of a meeting, the committee chairman informed the members that he had received a request from Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Aitzaz Ahsan for the deferment of the bill as he was busy in connection with some case before the Supreme Court`s bench in Karachi.

The committee had invited all the 44 opposition members who had signed the bill, but only three, including PPP`s parliamentary leader Taj Haider, were present in the meeting, showing the seriousness of the opposition on the matter.

Talking to reporters, Law Minister Zahid Hamid had said the bill moved by the opposition was `discriminatory` and aimed at `targeting` Prime Minister Sharif, whose name was noteven mentioned in the Panama Papers.

Moreover, the minister said, the bill had a limited scope and would not be helpful in preventing illegal practices in future. On the other hand, he said, the government had already introduced a bill in the National Assembly following the Supreme Court`s observation that the existing Inquiry Commission Act of 1956 was `toothless`. The minister claimed that the government-proposed bill had made the inquiry commission more powerful.

At the time of moving the bill in the Senate, Aitzaz Ahsan said the opposition had decided to move the private members` bill because it believed that the Panamagate scam could not be thoroughly investigated under the existing law.

He claimed that their bill was not discriminatory or politically motivated as it sought investigations against all those Pakistanis whose names had appeared in the Panama Papers.

It was after months of bickering and failure toagree on the terms of reference for the inquiry commission that the government and opposition had introduced their separate bills in the two houses of parliament.

The opposition`s bill suggests a forensic audit of all the money sent abroad through secret channels. The proposed law makes it binding upon all those whose names have appeared in the Panama Papers to provide judges of the commission access to their bank accounts. The bill binds the commission to first investigate Prime Minister Sharif and his family members before proceeding against the other Pakistanis named in the Panama Papers.

However, the text avoids naming PM Sharif or his office, instead referring to: `the inquiry against a respondent, who publicly volunteers himself and his family for accountability or who publicly admits holding of off shore assets, along with his family, shall be completed and submitted in the first instance`.