Islamabad, Apr 18: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan announced on Wednesday that the party will report 20 of its members to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for “participating in horse trading” during Senate elections that took place last month.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the PTI chief said that the party will give the members a chance to explain before sending their names to NAB. He claimed that PTI, by expelling nearly 30 per cent of its leaders, was “truly protecting the sanctity of the vote” and wondered if other political parties will follow suit.
The names of the PTI lawmakers who are suspected by the party leadership of “selling their votes” include Deena Naaz, Nargis Ali, Nagina Khan, Sardar Idrees, Obaid Mayar, Zahid Durrani, Fouzia Bibi, Naseem Hayat, Qurban Khan, Arif Yousaf, among others.
“This is not the first time lawmakers have taken part in horse trading,” Khan said. “This has been happening for the past 30 or 40 years.”
The PTI chief said that the accused lawmakers had received Rs40 million each and added that the party will issue a show-cause notice to each one of them.
Khan lauded other members of the party who “resisted the temptation” of taking large sums of money offered to them by other parties.
Last month, it was reported that at least 17 PTI lawmakers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa allegedly sold their votes during the Senate election enabling two PPP candidates to be elected to the Senate from the province where the PPP only has seven MPAs.
An initial investigation ordered by KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak into alleged horse-trading had revealed that at least 17 ─ and as many as 20 ─ PTI MPAs in KP had voted for candidates outside the party, sources in CM House Peshawar and Bani Gala told DawnNewsTV.
