Daily Times

Prime Minister Imran Khan said Tuesday the PTI’s candidate for Senate elections 2021, Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, will win against Yousaf Raza Gilani – the hopeful fielded by the opposition’s anti-government coalition under the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) – despite money and offers presented to sway the vote.

Speaking during a meeting with Shaikh and Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Imran Khan said the opposition parties would employ every tactic to win the upcoming Senate election. “That’s why I was a supporter of open-ballot polls,” he said. “The corrupt gang has come here as well [but] the nation knows about the tales of their [Opposition’s] corruption,” he said. “Letters are being written to the government’s lawmakers and other contacts established,” he noted, but stressed that the PTI regime was “united”.

The premier underscored that only the PTI’s Hafeez Shaikh would win the Senate battle. “It is a welcome development that the issue of Senate seats in Punjab was resolved through understanding,” he stated.

Prime Minister Imran Khan continued meetings with members of the National Assembly (MNAs) on second day Tuesday here at the Parliament House ahead of the Senate elections.

Federal ministers Shafqat Mehmood, Asad Umer, Syed Amin ul Haq, Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Pervez Khattak, Tariq Bashir Cheema and Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Special Assistant Malik Amir Dogar and Parliamentary Secretary for Planning Mohtarma Kanwal Shozab were also present in different meetings.

The MNAs, who met the prime minister, included Raja Riaz Ahmed (NA-110), Raza Nasrullah Ghumman (NA-105), Khurram Shehzad (NA-107), Sardar Talib Hussain Nakai (NA-140), Rahat Amanullah Bhatti (NA-119), Malik Karamat Ali Khokhar (NA-135), Tahir Sadiq (NA-55), Muhammad Ibrahim Khan (NA-158), Haji Imtiaz Ahmed Chaudhry (NA-85), Syed Faizul Hassan (NA-70), Chaudhry Shaukat Ali Bhatti (NA-87), Syed Mubeen Ahmed (NA-175), Zahoor Hussain Qureshi (NA-152), Prince Muhammad Nawaz (NA-12), Sher Akbar Khan (NA-9), Nawabzada Shahzain Bugti (NA-259), Khalid Hussain Magsi (NA-260), Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui (NA-255), Sabir Hussain Qaimkhani (NA-226), Salahuddin (NA-227), Usama Qadri (NA-253), Iqbal Muhammad Ali (NA-240), Kishwar Zehra, Saleh Muhammad (NA-13), Ali Khan Jadoon (NA-16), Imran Khattak (NA-26), Amir Hussain (NA-245), Malik Umar Aslam Khan (NA-93), Abdul Majeed Khan (NA-187), Mohtarma Fozia Behram, Mohtarma Sobia Kamal Khan, Mohtarma Sajida Begum, Mohtarma Nusrat Wahid, Lal Chand, Shanila Ruth, Dr. Ramesh Kumar, Jay Parkash, Jamshed Thamis, Abdul Ghaffar Wattoo, Muhammad Yaqub Sheikh, Chaudhry Farrukh Altaf, Khawaja Sheraz Mehmood, Ahmad Hussain Dehar and Makhdoom Zain Hussain Qureshi, and Member of the Provincial Assembly Fida Hussain.

Separately, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar spoke about democracy and Pakistan’s ongoing political atmosphere. “People are seeing the darkest form of democracy and all of this is happening in the name of democracy,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that millions were being offered in bribe to lawmakers in exchange for votes in the Senate elections. “There is a commotion on the floor of the assembly,” he noted, possibly referring to how the Sindh Assembly turned into a wrestling ring earlier in the day when PTI lawmakers beat up ‘rebel’ party members. “They still have nothing to get out of it but I wish this disgusting business could be stopped at least for the future,” the federal minister added.