The first thing that is being asked about the unedifying video of KP MPAs with piles of cash before them, and talking about voting away from the party ticket, is the timing. The three-year-old video has been thrown onto social media just before another Senate election, and in the midst of a government campaign to stop this horse-trading by a reference to the Supreme Court, and by an ordinance allowing for an open ballot for Senate elections. The question naturally arises is why would this video appeared now, after three years, at this particular juncture, and why did the possessor sit on it for three years? While one effect will be to put pressure on the Supreme Court, to rule in the government’s favour, or else face being thought a supporter of horse-trading, another effect will be to raise questions about what the government has done so far about acting against those responsible for suborning the parties’ MPAs.
At the same time, the question is inevitable about why there should be a constitutional amendment passed, and that too to jettison such a fundamental concept of democracy as the secret ballot, only because the PTI is unable to maintain party discipline? The party is rightly proud that action was taken against MPAs who disobeyed the party whip. Not only have the defaulting members blocked the action by obtaining stay orders, but those who brought together the deal have not been identified, let alone penalized in any way.
At the same time, the sale of votes definitely has to be stopped, but it seems to be presently the PTI’s problem, for it is that party’s legislators who are of the kind who seem willing to sell their votes, and that too only in KP, not in other provinces. Not only must the Constitution be amended, but the principle of secrecy of the ballot must be abandoned, only because the PTI is unable to enforce among legislators though it awarded tickets to. It is a sad comment on the party’s own commitment to anti-corruption that it cannot keep its own legislators honest.
