Daily Times

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday dared his political rivals, especially PPP and PML-N, to expose their parliamentarians who had been involved in horse-trading in the recently held Senate elections.

Talking to reporters here, Imran said that his party conducted a thorough internal investigation through a special committee and found as many as 20 members of the PTI guilty of selling their votes in the Senate elections. He said the 20 elected members of the PTI named a day earlier had been given a chance to prove their innocence otherwise the matter would be referred to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for legal action.

The PTI chief claimed that they had prepared a list of members of other parties including PPP and PML-N who also allegedly sold their votes in the Senate elections. He urged his political rivals to themselves take action against ‘corrupt’ parliamentarians in their ranks otherwise he will be forced to expose their names. He advised Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi to probe horse-trading by members of his own party before pointing the finger at others.

About an offer to him for selling his own vote in the Senate elections, Imran confirmed that he had been offered an amount of Rs 45 million. However, he refused to reveal the name of the person who made him the offer.

On the occasion, Imran Khan also formally invited Ch Nisar to join PTI for the greater good of the country. He lauded the veteran politician for standing up to the dynastic politics and not taking dictation from Maryam Nawaz. Imran said his old friend had refused to take orders from Maryam Nawaz. “I was happy to see Nisar showing some spine,” he said. “I liked the fact that Nisar refused to take orders from a woman who has no standing in the party except for being Nawaz Sharif’s daughter.”

To a query about visit of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) to the PTI-governed Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Imran said that the CJP was doing a remarkable job by highlighting the issues facing the common man. He said that he would want the CJP to draw a comparison between KP and other provinces vis-à-vis the socio-economic development.

Published in Daily Times, April 20^th 2018.