Manend Team 
ISLAMABAD, (MANEND NEWS): A video of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
(PTI) lawmakers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly allegedly receiving
bribes before the Senate elections in 2018 has surfaced on social
media amid the heated debate between the government and
Opposition on the issue of balloting for this year’s Senate elections.
In the video, stacks of currency can be seen sitting atop a table in
front of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PTI MPAs. Current KP Law Minister
Sultan Mohammad Khan and MPA Ubaid Mayar can be seen in the
video as well.
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.
The government and Opposition parties are at loggerheads over the
issue of open balloting in the upcoming Senate elections. The
Opposition has rejected the government’s demands to hold an open
ballot during the polls.
The government, on the other hand, has blamed the Opposition of
bribing parliamentarians in the past to secure votes for the secret
balloting in the Senate elections.
Reports had emerged in 2018 that at least 17 MPAs of the PTI had
voted for candidates other than their own party in the Senate elections
which ultimately led the PPP to win two seats from the KP where it
only had two senators.
The alleged horse-trading angered Prime Minister Imran Khan. A
subsequent inquiry spearheaded by former KP chief minister Pervaiz
Khattak found various MPAs guilty of selling their votes to rival parties.
Bacha, the former PPP MPA who can be seen allegedly distributing the
currency notes to the PTI lawmakers, spoke to a private TV channel to
say that the video was an edited one.
“Neither did I pay anyone nor did I receive [any bribe],” he said,
adding that two separate videos were joined together to make this
one.
PM Imran Khan reacted to the video shortly after they went viral. The
premier said that it showed how successive ruling elites drowned the
country in debt and destroyed the country’s morals.
“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 elite:” he
tweeted.
He blamed the “ruling elites” for coming into power and making money
to purchase decision-makers, bureaucrats and the media to
“consolidate their power and rob nation’s wealth.
“They spend money to come to power & then use this pol power to
make money to purchase bureaucrats, media & other decision-makers
to consolidate their power & rob nation’s wealth – money laundering it
into offshore accts/ foreign assets/palatial residences abroad,” he
tweeted.
A former PTI MPA Sardar Idrees, who can also be seen in the video,
rejected allegations that he had sold his votes to the rival party. “The
viral video is a result of political opponents’ conspiracies,” he said.
“This is an edited video, it has nothing to do with reality,” Idrees
added.
The lawmaker said he will prove that he voted for the PTI in the
Senate elections 2018 and hailed PM Imran Khan’s stance of holding
an open ballot in the upcoming polls. He demanded that his vote be
checked before a forensic audit of the video is conducted.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has demanded the resignation of the
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and
Human Rights Sultan Mohammad Khan.
According to Special Assistant to PM on Political Communication Dr.
Shahbaz Gill, a “detailed inquiry” will be held on the matter. In a
follow up tweet, Gill said that PM Imran Khan had suspended the
memberships of 20 PTI lawmakers who were found guilty of taking
bribes and selling their votes.
“On the other hand, the PML-N has bestowed more honour on its
member Rana Mashood ever since his video came to the fore,”
tweeted Gill. “This is the difference between Imran Khan and these
thieves,” he said.
Meanwhile 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 video 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.
Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain on
Tuesday said the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz (PML-N) were opposing the open Senate voting in order
to use money or do horse trading during the polls.
Talking to a private TV channel, he claimed that PPP leadership had
done massive horse trading during the Senate election 2018 and also
won one seat from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The minister said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had carried out
thoroughly investigation and ousted those lawmakers were found in
illegal practice of horse trading during the Senate elections.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed resolve to hold the
upcoming Senate elections through open balloting in order to eliminate
the menace of vote-trading in the country.
