ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreeke-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan Wednesday accused the ruling coalition of repeating horse-trading, saying that PTI MPAs were being lured with money in a bid to win the election of leader of the house, scheduled for July 22 – a claim refuted by the PML-N government later in the day.
“Today Lahore is seeing a repeat of the Sindh House horse-trading that happened in Islamabad with up to Rs50 crores being offered to buy MPAs,” former prime minister and PTI chairman Imran Khan wrote on his official Twitter handle.
He claimed that the main architect behind this was PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who he said “gets NRO for his corruption and purchases people with looted wealth. He shd [should] be jailed.”
The former premier said this is not only an attack on our democracy but also on moral fabric of our society. “Had SC (Supreme Court) taken action and debarred these turncoats for life it would have acted as deterrent,” he deplored.
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Sindh House in the federal capital came to limelight in March when several ruling PTI lawmakers had announced that they would not follow the party line in the National Assembly ahead of the voting on no-confidence motion against then prime minister Imran Khan that saw his ouster from power after one of the dissidents revealed that at least 24 MNAs were staying the infamous location.
Meanwhile, former information minister and PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry, while addressing a press conference in Islamabad today, has said that each PTI MPA is being offered Rs350 million to change their loyalties.
“Asif Ali Zardari is offering this money. He has set up a marketplace for buying and purchasing MPAs. Where do you want to take this country? We demand that Atta Tarar, Zardari and Rana Sanaullah should be put in prison,” he added.
The PTI leader said that his party will also approach Supreme Court on Thursday in this connection.
Fawad said that the money on offer by Zardari is from the Sindh treasury. “They don’t have money to clean nullahs in Karachi but they are offering money to our MPAs.”
He said that people of Pakistan will never accept such illegal practices, urging the apex court to take notice of the situation. “You’re inviting further chaos by doing this. Our economy is already in a very bad shape. Punjab chief minister’s election should be done according to law,” he added.
Talking about his party’s number game in Punjab Assembly, Fawad said the PTI had the support of 188 MPAs and after recounting, the number might jump to 189 or 190, adding that they will comfortably get Speaker Pervaiz Elahi elected as the new chief minister of the province.
“If the Sindh House episode was noticed by the institutions then we would not have seen this today,” he remarked.
Fawad further said that each Punjab Assembly lawmaker belonging to PTI is scrutinised, but when such a huge amount is offered, not many people can resist.
The development comes days after the PTI’s stunning win in high-stakes polls on 20 Punjab Assembly seats, making a grand arrival into the enemy’s territory as it pierced through some of the arch-rival PML-N’s pocket boroughs in the party’s home ground.
Winning the bellwether province with a landslide lead, PTI not only paved the way to wrestle back the heartland’s reins from CM Hamza Shehbaz but also set the course for triggering a domino effect for the shaky federal government.
Tarrar rejects allegations
Punjab Home Minister Ataullah Tarar later rejected the PTI allegations of ‘horse-trading’ allegations, saying that the PML-N has not offered any money to Members of Provincial Assembly (MPAs) ahead of Punjab CM elections.
Tarar said that he rejects all the allegations levelled against him by the PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry, challenging the former information minister to testify his claims on oath on the Holy Quran.
Speaking about the PTI leader’s claims about the Rahim Yar Khan MPA, Ata Tarar said that Chaudhry Masood Ahmed had resigned in April and lambasted the opposition party for not being aware of its own members.
The Punjab Home Minister further said that the PTI has once again started crying, adding that more resignations could possibly come forward.
“Shah Mehmood Qureshi was also present in the parliamentary party meeting of PML-Q and PTI. Why only 100 members out of 188 participated in the meeting,” the provincial minister argued.
Tarar levied his own allegations of PML-N MPAs being allegedly bribed by Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervaiz Elahi and his son Moonis Elahi.
“A PML-N lawmaker was approached with a bribe of Rs100m while he was performing Haj,” he alleged, adding that Moonis was ‘pleading’ with the MPAs in Islamabad to switch loyalties while an elderly female PML-N MPA was also approached in Faisalabad.
