Vote buying: Imran casts doubts on PML-N sincerity

Accuses PPP and JUI-F of being opposed to transparent elections

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan on Monday cast doubts on the government’s sincerity to end horse-trading in the upcoming Senate elections, saying it would now contest the polls with a renewed commitment to expose those involved in wheeling and dealing.

“It has become evident that the government’s intentions to end horse-trading by bringing in a constitutional amendment were never sincere and that is also reflected in Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s going to Saudi Arabia at this crucial time,” he said in a statement on Monday.

Earlier, an all parties’ conference (APC) had refused to endorse, for their own reasons, the 22nd constitutional amendment bill proposed by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Friday to put an end to buying and selling of votes in the Senate elections.

Imran regretted that his efforts to persuade Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Zardari to oppose horse-trading have also failed. The PPP remains opposed to open balloting because it is deeply involved in horse-trading along with the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI F), he said.

The PTI chief said he had spoken to Zardari on a one-point agenda to put an end to the despicable practice in the Senate elections which was destroying democracy in Pakistan, especially in the wake of the ‘rigged’ 2013 general elections.

It was because of the PTI’s commitment to ensure transparent and fair elections that it had demanded open balloting for the Senate elections. When the PML-N government signalled its readiness to move in this direction, the PTI had also extended its support and sent its representatives to the APC called for the purpose, he recalled.

Imran made it clear that the PTI would in no way support either the PPP or the PML-N in their undemocratic and corrupt designs for the Senate polls. Instead, he said, he himself would lead PTI efforts to ensure clean polls in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and expose horse-trading practically taking place.

There was neither any deal nor can there be one with any party on the upper house of parliament elections, the PTI chief said. PTI’s participation in the APC on a constitutional amendment was also an effort to end the buying of votes that is going on for the Senate elections.

But given the intent of the PPP and the PML-N, the PTI will now contest the Senate polls with a renewed commitment to expose and defeat those trying to buy their way into the Senate, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 3^rd, 2015.