The election for the post of Senate chairperson hasn’t yet begun and the PTI senators are already being offered money to sell their votes, claimed Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday.
Chairing a party meeting, the prime minister said that the recently held Senate elections proved the suspicions that the PTI government had already expressed. “The Opposition used money to win the Islamabad seat,” he said, referring to Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh’s surprise loss to former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.
The prime minister urged party representatives to highlight the issue of the opposition allegedly buying votes in the Senate election, adding that the PPP and the PML-N have been using money as a tool to influence elections in the past as well. “These people first spend money to get elected and then spend the same money [on illegal activities],” he said.
The prime minister continued his criticism of the Election Commission of Pakistan, saying that its role has been controversial in the recent Senate polls. He also lashed out at PDM’s joint candidate for the post of Senate chairman, former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani, adding that the PPP leader had ‘destroyed [the concept of] morality [in politics] and the entire nation is watching his actions’.
Urging his party members to push back against the opposition’s narrative, the PTI chairperson said that his party’s senators were already receiving offers to sell their votes for the upcoming elections for Senate top slot. “I know very well which senator was offered what,” he said, adding that money was used to influence the Senate elections not only in Islamabad but also in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Also on Monday, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz said the government will present ‘solid evidence’ regarding corrupt practices allegedly adopted by the opposition during the Senate election and will present it before the court and the ECP at an appropriate time. The minister alleged that the PPP spent billions of rupees to ensure the victory of Yousaf Raza Gilani in the Senate poll for the Islamabad general seat. he said the entire nation knew how Ali Haider Gilani was buying votes for his father.
He said the vote of confidence obtained by Prime Minister Imran Khan from the National Assembly has embarrassed the opposition. “More members of the National Assembly have now reposed confidence in the leadership of the prime minister than in 2018,” he noted, referring to the prime minister securing 178 votes of confidence compared to 176 to secure his office.
After a hotly contested electoral battle last week, former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani had emerged victorious against the ruling party’s Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh. Gilani had secured 169 votes while Shaikh received 164 votes. Out of the total number of 341 votes, six were rejected and one was not polled. Following the victory, PM Imran Khan lashed out at the ECP in his address to the nation last week, blaming the commission for allowing horse-trading.
