'Misusing' government resources: Opposition Senators demand registration of FIR against PM

Describing the government sponsored advertisements on TV channels and newspapers as an attempt to influence the ongoing hearing of Panama papers in Supreme Court, opposition political parties in Senate on Friday demanded an FIR should be registered against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif allegedly for misusing government resources.
The demand came at a time when the opposition Senate session when Supreme Court has started hearing of the Panama papers involving the family of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The opposition parties demanded that the bill aimed at legislation to form a judicial commission to hold probe into Panama Papers and jointly submitted to the Upper House should immediately be passed before they walked out of the House in protest.
After registering their protest in front of the dice of Chairman Senate Raza Rabbani, the opposition political parties staged a token walkout, which also led to lack of quorum, forcing the chair to order the counting when the quorum was pointed out by PPP's Senator Mukhtiar Ahmed Dhamrah.
Earlier, taking the floor when a motion was under debate regarding the "brutal crackdown on political workers in violation of fundamental rights, the intended closure of Islamabad and the violation Islamabad High Court's October 27 order by the government," leader of the opposition Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan referred to the hearing of the Panama papers case in the apex court.
"The opposition parties have decided to register our protest in front of your [chairman] dice for our demand that an FIR should be registered against Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif for misusing the government resources on the advertisements, influencing the apex court through such ads as well as in favour of the opposition's bill laying in Senate to be passed forthwith," he said.
He also called upon the Supreme Court to take notice of the government's advertisement campaign in the national media which is being run to influence the court's hearing. He said that the opposition's bill in the Senate was not targeting the Prime Minister and his children alone but all those having offshore companies, which was not acceptable to the government.
But, now as the case is with the apex court and Prime Minister's children are under the probe, the government was again finding ways to escape the accountability process through objections raised by the Attorney General, he added. He further stated that the standard procedure which was adopted in the case of former Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, should also be adopted in the case of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The opposition members, however, rejoined the proceedings of the House before it was adjourned sine die.