ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani on Thursday accepted the resignation of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar who quit his Senate membership after reportedly being asked by the party leadership to do so, apparently for supporting Azam Swati in the video leak controversy.
In this context, Khokhar Thursday called on Sanjrani to submit his handwritten resignation, which was immediately accepted by the Senate chairman.
Following this move, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is required to issue a notification to declare the seat vacated by Khokhar as vacant. Thereafter, election would be held on the vacant seat. Khokhar was elected on PPP ticket on a general seat from Sindh in March 2018 Senate elections.
In a hard-hitting presser on November 5, Swati, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator had alleged that his wife was sent an objectionable video from an unknown number on the night of November 4 that featured her with her husband.
According to the PTI senator, the video was recorded during his visit to a judicial residential facility in Quetta in August this year. His particular visit and stay in Quetta was facilitated by the Senate chief, Swati has alleged.
Swati’s revelation sent shockwaves across Pakistan’s political spectrum with many politicians, regardless of their political affiliations openly siding with the PTI senator to express solidarity.
Among them was Khokhar who strongly condemned the alleged video leak. In a tweet, Khokhar deplored that Swati’s presser was a “slap on the face of the chairman Senate and the entire Parliament. The thought never crossed my mind that our intelligence officials can stoop so low and become so dishonourable…”
In another tweet, Mustafa Khokhar stated, “Just got a call from a Brig from ISI that they’ve got nothing to do with the video & it was prepared on dark web. Told him to convince Senator Swati, not me.I stand by my colleague the way army stood by Maj Gen Faisal Naseer.”
Soon after these tweets, reports were afloat that Khokhar was asked by his party leadership to resign from the Senate — which he did. Sanjrani, who has been under fire from different political and public circles, finally formed a 14-member committee on Sunday comprising senators from all the political parties having representation in Senate as well as an independent senator to investigate the matter and furnish a report in 30 days.
However, on Monday, the joint opposition in Senate rejected this move and demanded Sanjrani’s immediate resignation.
Before this episode, Sanjrani drew strong criticism from the opposition lawmakers for not issuing the production order of Swati who was arrested by the Cyber crime Wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) last month for his “defamatory” tweet about army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022