Horse-trading in Senate polls: Imran Khan threatens to dissolve K-P Assembly

PTI chief scuppers a fledgling alliance between ruling, opposition parties

PESHAWAR:

Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has torpedoed a fledgling alliance among ruling and opposition parties of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa for the Senate elections. Instead in a stern warning to all provincial legislators Imran said that he would not hesitate to dissolve the assembly if large-scale horse trading took place in Thursday’s election.

The alliance was unofficially gelled together at a Tuesday night meeting between provincial leaders of opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Qaumi Wattan Party (QWP) and representatives of the ruling PTI. QWP’s senior leader Anisa Zeb Tahirkheli confirmed to The Express Tribune that the meeting had agreed to adopt a joint strategy for the Senate elections.



However, the PTI chief wrecked the nascent alliance at a news conference at the Chief Minister House in Peshawar on Wednesday. He said the PTI legislators would not cast their second preference votes for candidates of any other party. “They [PTI MPAs] will not vote for the candidates of PML-N and QWP,” he added.

Imran’s categorical statement put the PML-N and QWP in a quandary as the two parties saw in the PTI the last ray of hope after they failed to form an alliance with three fellow opposition parties – JUI-F, PPP and ANP.

Imran hardened his stance on wheeling and dealing, threatening to dissolve the provincial assembly if large-scale political horse-trading took place in the Senate elections. “We are ready to dissolve the assembly and call fresh polls,” he said.

He warned his party’s MPAs, saying that if anyone voted against the party candidate, his/her membership would be terminated and legal action would be taken against him/her. “We have already initiated legal proceedings against dissident MPA Javed Nasim.”

The PTI chief asked the chief election commissioner why no steps have been taken by the Election Commission of Pakistan to check horse-trading in the Senate polls. “Politicians make money in these elections,” he said, adding that such despicable practices only malign democracy in Pakistan. He described the incumbent government’s efforts to amend the Constitution in order to stop horse-trading as a ‘drama’.



He questioned how the PPP, which has only five MPAs in the K-P Assembly, could eye three Senate seats from the province, and how the JUI-F with 17 MPAs could aspire for three seats.

He said that the PTI did not allot ticket to senior party member Dr Fauzia Kasuri, who was aspirant from K-P, because she was not a resident of the province.

When asked, Imran refused to name the man who offered the PTI Rs140 million for a Senate ticket. “He is a good person who might have been encouraged by ill-practices of the past,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5^th, 2015.