A video of PTI lawmakers allegedly receiving bribes as a part of horse trading before Senate Elections 2018 has gone viral on social media.
The leaked video is being considered as an important development as the government and opposition parties are at loggerheads over the issue of open ballot in upcoming Senate elections.
In the video, PTI MPAs from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, including current provincial Law Minister Sultan Mohammad Khan and former MPAs Sardar Idrees, Ubaid Ullah Mayar and Meraj Humayun can be seen receiving money from former PPP MPA Mohammad Ali Bacha.
However, Bacha and Idress have denied allegations by declaring the video “edited one” while Mayar claimed that former CM KPK Pervez Khattak had asked him to accept Rs10 million in bribe in 2018.
Now, the PTI-led federal government wants to hold the Senate polls with open ballot while the opposition has rejected the demand. The government has already blamed the opposition for bribing legislators in the past to secure votes in the context of secret balloting in the Senate elections.
“The videos showing the shameful way in which politicians buy & sell votes in Senate reflects the total destruction of the nation’s morality by successive ruling elites as they drowned the nation in debt,” Prime Minister Imran Khan wrote on Twitter.
“They spend money to come to power & then use this pol power to make money to purchase bureaucrats, media & other decision-makers to consolidate their power & rob nation’s wealth – money laundering it into offshore accts/ foreign assets/palatial residences abroad,” the premier added.
Meanwhile the federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry shared the details of 20 former legislators from PTI who were involved in horse trading during the last polls.