ISLAMABAD – The controversy over the upcoming Senate elections took a new turn on Tuesday as Prime Minister Imran Khan sacked the law minister of his party’s provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa after videos of alleged horse trading during 2018 polls of the upper house of parliament went viral on social media.
The prime minister has directed KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan to remove provincial Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights Sultan Muhammad Khan on the leaked videos and ordered a detailed inquiry on the matter whose report would be presented to him, Special Assistant to PM (SAPM) on Political Communication Dr Shahbaz Gill made the announcement through Twitter.
The video that was first aired by a private TV channel allegedly showed some of the then lawmakers of KP Assembly while counting bundles of currencies one by one and the money is being put inside a travelling bag each time. Though the authenticity of the video has yet to be ascertained, yet it also showed the incumbent law minister KP sitting on an expensive sofa set while bundles of money had been placed on a table in front of him.
The TV channel along with the airing of videos also claimed that the footages were recorded between February 20 and March 2 in 2018 before the last Senate election that was held on March 3.
Soon after the announcement of SAPM, the CM KP through a Twitter statement said that he has received the resignation of law minister as he had been asked “to step aside and resign, due to his alleged appearance in a video released on social media, to clear his name.”
In a hand-written resignation, Sultan Khan unconditionally offered himself for any kind of inquiry and hoped that justice would prevail and he would be able to clear his name.
The law minister was a member of the Qaumi Watan Party during the 2018 Senate election and later he joined ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to contest the 2018 general elections.
Some of the then PTI MPAs (members of provincial assembly) from KP who can be allegedly seen in the videos while talking to private TV channels questioned the authenticity of the video as one of them claimed that the same has been edited.
The prime minister himself took to the Twitter to criticize the alleged open sale and purchase of votes of MPAs to change their loyalties and said, “The videos showing the shameful way in which politicians buy & sell votes in Senate reflects the total destruction of the nation’s morality by successive ruling elites as they drowned the nation in debt. Cycle of corruption & money laundering is a sordid tale of our pol (political) elite.”
He further said that the corrupt elite used to spend money to come to power to use it further to make money and they “purchase bureaucrats, media and other decision-makers to consolidate their power and rob nation’s wealth.” And then they launder this money into their offshore accounts and to buy foreign assets and palatial residences abroad, he added.
The PM also criticised the opposition and said that the opposition’s Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) wanted protection by supporting a corruption-friendly system. “We are determined to stop this cycle of corruption & money laundering that is debilitating the nation.”
On the leaked videos, the PTI claimed that these have vindicated their stance that the Senate election should be held through open voting to discourage the practice of horse trading and floor crossing.
In 2018, the ruling party had expelled as many 20 MPAs of his party from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on charges of floor crossing during the Senate election.
Political analysts have termed the timing of leakage of the videos very important at a time when the Supreme Court is seized with the matter of presidential reference seeking open voting for the upcoming Senate election that is due next week. Half of the members of the 104-member Senate will retire on March 11, 2021 after completing their 6-year term. The Election Commission of Pakistan has said that it will announce the Senate polls schedule on February 11 (tomorrow).
The government has also promulgated a ‘controversial’ ordinance — the Elections (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 — to pave way for open voting of the Senate election that otherwise has to be held through secret balloting.
All the major opposition parties including Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) have not only rejected the Presidential ordinance but also opposed the government’s move to hold the Senate poll through open voting.
But, Prime Minister Imran Khan for the last couple of months has been advocating to hold Senate election through the open ballot to ensure transparency and to eliminate vote-trading in the country.
Last month, the PM in a public statement had alleged that some of the PTI MPAs from KP had sold their votes for worth Rs 50 million each in 2018 during last election of the upper house of parliament. He had said that bidding process had started once again ahead of Senate polls this year and they knew “who was raising money to buy loyalties this time.”
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