ISLAMABAD - Ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) looks unwilling to show flexibility over the Panama Papers probe mechanism and will not accept or even consider opposition’s tailored terms of reference.

Parliamentarians belonging to the ruling alliance and opposition parties see ending up of the Parliamentary Committee on Panama Papers in the permanent deadlock as both the government and the opposition parties are not ready to show flexibility on their declared stance.

The government and opposition members in the Panama Papers probe panel are in a state of deadlock from the day first with both the sides not ready to show flexibility on the modus operandi to solve the riddle of offshore accounts and issues associated with it.

The blame game started from the day one holding each other responsible for the persistent deadlock on working out terms of reference for the probe into the Panama leaks revelations and even after five sittings both the sides are standing at a point from where they had started their journey on May 25.

Vice-Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that they have made no progress on the probe of Panama leaks and are standing at the point where they were in the maiden meeting of the committee on May 25.

The government team members are not at all ready to accept the terms of reference put forth by the joint opposition while on the other hand the opposition team members, though flexible on some points, are not ready to concede ground on the core issue of initiating the probe into the Panama leaks from Prime Minister’s family, a member of the committee from opposition side said.

The two-week time given to the Parliamentary Committee on Panama Papers will be completing tomorrow when the committee would meet again for the sixth sitting and would require extension in the timeline for another week due to no progress on the matter.

A source in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) informed The Nation that the government team would not accept any set of ToRs targeting the Prime Minister and his family and would want to have a broader framework to deal with not only the Panama leaks but also other mode of corruptions including the loan write-off and misuse of official status.

The source further informed that it would also be difficult for the government team members to agree on the point of initiating the probe from the Panama leaks and that too from the family of Prime Minister.

The opposition team members in the Parliamentary panel are of the view that the government is just buying time and not serious in the investigation into the Panama leaks. It is because of their non-serious attitude that they are confusing the things and trying to include other issues into the probe alongside Panama leaks.

Barrister Ch Aitzaz Ahsan made it loud and clear before the previous meeting of the committee that they would not budge an inch from their stand of starting the probe into Panama leaks from Prime Minister’s family.

The sources in government said that now the ruling PML-N seemed relaxed as it thought it has diluted the intensity of the pressure and with holy month of Ramazan at the corner the opposition parties will not be in a position to bring the matter to streets.

The sources further said that though the PML-N efforts to divide the opposition parties have failed so far but efforts are still on to create divide in the opposition parties in coming days.

On the other hand the statement of former president Asif Ali Zardari on Panama leaks demanding complete and thorough probe into the matter had given new impetus to the PPP which was wavering due to the silence of their leadership on the issue.

The sources confirmed that the statement of Asif Ali Zardari had sent a wave of panic in the ruling elite which was still trying to woo the support of PPP leadership on the issue.

The joint opposition members of the Panama Papers panel will discuss the reformulated ToRs given to them along with some relevant laws today but it is the loud thinking in the opposition side that the government is just trying to drag the matter.

Sources in the opposition members said that they would observe complete restraint and would not give an impression of impatience on part of the opposition to fully expose the government’s intention to sweep the whole matter under the carpet.

These sources said that the opposition members would even accept the government’s request to extend the timeline for the panel for another week or so and would not let the government leave the negotiations table creating some sort of mess and putting the blame on opposition.