Senate elections show how country is losing its moral compass: PM Imran

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday said the recent Senate elections show how the country is losing its moral compass and warned that nation-states have been destroyed throughout history due to moral decay and corruption.

The premier's warning comes a day before the Senate will hold elections to appoint a new chairman and deputy chairman. The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf also alleged horse-trading in the recently held elections in the upper house of parliament.

In a major upset in the Senate elections, Yousaf Raza Gilani, the joint candidate of opposition parties, was elected senator from Islamabad, by defeating Abdul Hafeez Shaikh of the ruling party.

Gilani, a former prime minister who belongs to the PPP, enjoyed the support of the PDM, an alliance cobbled together by a dozen opposition parties against the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Read: Govt bounces back after Senate shock as PM wins trust vote

"Many nations before you were destroyed when there was one law for the powerful and another for the weak," said the premier while quoting the Holy Prophet (PBUH).

The premier further said that once a country loses its moral authority, "deal-making (NRO) with the powerful criminals is resorted to".

Following the defeat of Shaikh in the March 3 Senate elections, the prime minister took a vote of confidence in the National Assembly and received 178 votes, more than he had received at the time of his election in 2018.

During his address to the NA, the premier fired a broadside at his chief political rivals calling Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif thieves who were blackmailing his government into dropping corruption cases against them.

Prior to the vote, the prime minister had said that 16 treasury members sold themselves for money in the Senate elections.