Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Tuesday said that the PDM has succeeded in its struggle and whatever happens during Senate elections on Wednesday will be a bonus for them.

“Our purpose was to get respect for the lawmakers and the parliament. We wanted the vote to be respected,” he said, adding that they have achieved it.

Bilawal said that the PPP is contesting the polls in the name of democracy. “It is the government which is using money during the Senate elections from the taxpayers’ money,” he claimed. “Instead, we were asking the voters to cast their ballot as per their conscience.”

The PDM candidate for Senate’s Islamabad seat, Yousaf Raza Gilani, said that they were against horse-trading in the Senate elections. “If the government wants to end secret balloting, we are ready to sit with them,” he said. “We want supremacy of parliament and it is due to our efforts that the government has been forced to pay heed to its lawmakers,” he added.

“Our cause has been achieved,” Gilani said, adding that it is their due right to ask a lawmaker to vote for them and it is for the government to control its lawmakers. “Even I have asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to vote for me,” he added.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Ali Haider Gillani earlier in the day confirmed the video showing his meeting with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers ahead of Senate polls. While addressing a press conference along with PPP MNA Shazia Marri, Gilani confirmed that he met with PTI lawmakers last week to discuss things related to Senate polls. According to him, the lawmakers are his friends and he did nothing wrong by meeting them.