A video of an alleged ‘horse-trading’ incident came to the forefront on Tuesday showing the exchange of cash for votes before the 2018 Senate elections.
The video shows a man handing over large sums of money, reportedly Rs20 million, to various provincial lawmakers belonging to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf and others. The money was given to secure their votes for the PPP and its candidate during the 2018 Upper House polls.
Former PPP MPA Mohammad Ali Bacha can be seen handing over the stacks to the PTI parliamentarians. PTI’s Sultan Mohammad Khan can be seen receiving money in the video and keeping it in a bag.
Sardar Idrees, another former MPA of the PTI, can also be seen taking money. Another former PTI MPA Meraj Humayun can be seen in the video, receiving the money and putting it in a bag as can another former MPA of the party, Dina Khan.
Prime Minister Imran Khan’s desire to use the method of show of hands for the Senate polls shows that he (the PM) doesn’t have confidence in lawmakers of his own party.
PM knew that members of assemblies belonging to his party were angry with him as in case of the secret voting, they would vote for someone else in the forthcoming Senate polls.That is the reason the PM wanted to use the method of show of hands for the Senate polls,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Law Minister Sultan Khan tendered his resignation from the provincial cabinet on Tuesday, minutes after the chief minister tweeted that he had asked him to do so over his "alleged appearance in a video" leaked on social media.
The purported video, shared on Twitter by PTI's official account, showed some parliamentarians sitting before and counting stacks of cash reportedly ahead of the Senate elections in 2018.In his resignation letter, shared by KP CM Mehmood Khan on Twitter, Sultan said he felt “it was his moral duty and obligation to withdraw from the cabinet and offer my resignation”.
He also expressed the hope that “justice will be done” and that he would be able to clear his name.
"We will, as per vision of PM, uphold highest standards of accountability & transparency in this province," the chief minister earlier wrote on Twitter.
In 2018, the PTI had expelled 20 of its members after they were found guilty of accepting Rs50 million for horse-trading in the 2018 Senate polls by an investigation committee.
Speaking in Sahiwal last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan had also recalled that the 20 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly belonging to the PTI were paid Rs50m each to vote in favour of certain candidates during the last elections of the upper house.
Earlier in the day, federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar in a press conference referred to the same video to stress the need for reforms in the Senate election process."The video is from 2018 before the Senate elections. Some MPAs from KP are taking money to sell their vote. This is not recent news. We have been hearing for the last 20-30 years that Senate elections are sold, consciences are sold but it is heart-rending for any person who has a conscience [to see this]."
Some time later, Prime Minister Imran Khan also tweeted about the contents of the video, saying "We are determined to stop this cycle of corruption & money laundering that is debilitating the nation."
