This is the moment that Imran Khan has spent the last five years waiting for: a round of good innings. In a dramatic move, the PTI chairman has named and shamed 20 of his Khyber Pakhtunkhwa lawmakers over horse-trading in the recent Senate elections.
Khan has said that he was aware of the corrupt wheeling-and-dealing that saw MPAs sell votes for up to Rs40 million a shot. In the interest of fairness, the party will allow them a chance to clear their names. Though this is perhaps akin to locking the stable door after the horse-traders have bolted. The most likely outcome is that the PTI chief will do the needful and hand the matter over to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
To be willing to lose a simple provincial majority and putting the sanctity of the vote above party ambitions is a bold move. For such a gamble would ordinarily precipitate a no-confidence motion; or else the calling for a fresh session of the house. Yet both are unlikely to happen given that the assemblies have just 40 days until their tenures’ end.
Which begs the question as to whether or not Khan’s latest swing bowl is emblematic of principles or stone-cold strategy. Which is another way of asking: why now? Firstly, this admission of corruption in theory ought to render the Upper house elections null and void. Though in legal terms this might not happen; not unless there is evidence of each and every one of the 52 seats having been compromised. All of which suggests that any meaningful probe by NAB will conclude after Pakistanis go ballot-boxing this summer. This is what everyone wants, from the big political players to the military establishment.
Secondly, there is the not un-small matter of the expulsion as a face-saving measure for PTI in terms of not having to go through the rigmarole of trying to pass any outstanding bills during the remainder of its provincial tenure. Indeed, Khan has already said that no budget for the next fiscal year 2018-19will be presented by KP before the polls.
Of course, there are two things that Khan could do to silence his naysayers. The first is to include Chaudhry Mohammad Sarwar on the list of suspect votes. After all, the former British parliamentarian swept to the Senate from the Punjab; when PTI only had a strength of 30 seats, far less than the required numbers to elect a Senator. Khan’s critics are rightfully asking how is alleged selling of votes different from ‘buying’? Horse-trading is, after all, a two-way process. The second concerns the future of Jahangir Tareen, the former party secretary general who disqualified by the court for financial misdeeds. Why is Khan applying a different standard when it comes to his party leader? Mr Tareen should have been expelled from the party if one reminds Imran Khan of his earlier statements about ‘corrupt’ politicians. If he will not take this step then what’s the difference between PTI and its rival the PMLN? *
Published in Daily Times, April 20th 2018.