ISLAMABAD: Government and opposition leaders agreed on Wednesday to form a 12-member parliamentary committee including six members each from both sides that will draft the terms of reference (ToR) for the proposed Panamagate inquiry commission.

But rather thanjust concentrating on the individuals named in the Panama Papers, the committee will also go after those involved in receiving kickbacks and commissions, as well as those who had their loans written off illegally.

Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid briefed reporters about the decision after a meeting between leaders from both sides of the aisle, held in the speaker`s chamber af ter the end of National Assembly proceedings.

`A motion will be passed in the assembly on Thursday to give the committee legal cover,` he said, adding that committee members may be from either house of parliament.

The committee, he said, would be bound to finish its task within two weeks, adding that its modalities would be settled once both sides finalised their names.

The opposition came up with its list on Wednesday night, which included Pakistan Peoples Party`s Aitzaz Ahsan, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf`s Shah Mehmood Qureshi,Aftab Sherpao of the Qaumi Watan Party, Sahibzada Tariqullah of the Jamaat-i-Islami, Awami National Party`s Ilyas Bilour and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid`s Tariq Bashir Cheema. There was no official word on who would represent the government.

The decision came on an eventful day in the house, and was the outcome of hectic politicking, both inside and outside the assembly.

The government appeared to be going out of the way to appease the opposition, with Mr Rashid foregoing his right to reply in detail to Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah`s speech, to ensure that Imran Khan received ample time on the house floor.

In his speech on the floor of the house, Mr Shah called for the accountability of all parliamentarians, irrespective of party affiliation. `We have not resorted to calling each other `chor-chor`, because we know who benefits from such a situation,` he said pointedly.

22nd amendment Following the PTI chief`s speech, before Khawaja Asif rose to respond, the speaker requested that members remain in the house so that the numbers required to pass the 22nd constitutional amendment could be achieved.

Mr Shah suggested that Mr Asif postpone his response to Mr Khan`s speech until the next day so the house could take up the amendment. However, this suggestion was met with jeers from the treasury benches and the opposition also responded in kind.

Calling for order, the speaker gave the floor to Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who called on the speaker to allow leaders of parliamentary parties to speak on Panamagate.

`We have a consensus [with the government] on the amendment; we want to pass it. You need 228 members to pass the bill and we will contribute to it,` he said.

Then, when Aftab Sherpao argued that there wasn`t enough time to consider the amendment, the speaker also noted that the treasury did not have the required numbers. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar ceded, agreeing to let Mr Asif and parliamentary leaders complete their speeches, effectively postponing the passage of the amendment for another day.

The 22nd amendment bill, which was recommended for passage unanimously by the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms, basically seeks to do away with the stipulation that only retired judges can become members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (E CP).

The proposed amendment seeks to change the wordings of Articles 213 and 218 of the Constitution that deal with the powers of the chief election commissioner and the ECP members. Clause 2 of Article 213 currently reads: `No person shall be appointed to be commissioner unless he is,or has been, a judge of the Supreme Court or is, or has been, a judge of a high court and is qualified ... to be appointed a judge of the Supreme Court.

After the amendment is passed, this clause will be read: `No person shall be appointed commissioner unless he has been a judge of the Supreme Court or has been a senior civil servant or is a technocrat and is not more than 68 years of age.

The amendment also envisages a similar change of criteria for the four members of the commission, but the age limit in their caseissetat65years ofage.

According to the proposed amendment, the term `senior civil servant` is defined as `a civil servant who has served for at least 20 years under a federal or provincial government and has retired in BPS-22 or above`. A `technocrat` means `a person who is the holder of a degree requiring conclusion of at least 16 years of education ...

and has at least 20 years of experience.

There is urgency around the passage of the amendment because the four current members of the ECP are set to retire on June 11 this year, and all parties had agreed that the new members should be appointed under the revised criteria. In order to do this, the government needs the amendment to be passed into law by the current sittings of both houses of parliament.