ISLAMABAD: The lawmakers allegedly involved in “selling” their votes to opposition candidate Yosuaf Raza Gilani in the Senate elections, which resulted in the defeat of finance minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, have been identified.

This was revealed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, during a meeting of senior party leaders, which was also attended by chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani and National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to take stock of the situation following PTI candidate Dr Sheikh’s defeat in the Senate polls. “A few of our people were bought [and] we know all their names,” the sources quoted the prime minister as saying during the meeting. However, the prime minister did not say anything about the action his party would possibly take against the members allegedly involved in “selling” their votes in the crucial Senate election.

But the sources said the members who “betrayed” the party, voted against its candidates or intentionally wasted their votes would face a disciplinary action that may not be different from the one that his party’s 20 MPs in KPK faced. They were expelled from the party. “I knew the opponents would use money to buy votes [in the Senate elections], but if they think they can browbeat me, they’re mistaken,” the premier was quoted as telling the meeting.

The prime minister said he would keep on exposing the opposition as their politics through use of corrupt money would be of no use as people know “the politics of Zardari and Co”.

“The change of the corrupt system is my top most priority, and I’ll not rest unless the status quo is defeated. If someone has any objection with my ideology, he or she is free to go somewhere else,” he declared.

The legal and constitutional experts also briefed the prime minister about the vote of confidence and other issues pertaining to March 3rd Senate elections, especially the purported use of money to “buy” the loyalties of the PTI MPs by the opposition.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021