Prime Minister Imran Khan, while criticizing the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) for supporting a ‘corruption-friendly’ system in the Senate elections, said on Tuesday that the present government is determined to stop the cycle of corruption and money laundering which is debilitating the nation.
“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. Cycle of corruption & money laundering is a sordid tale of our political elite,” Imran Khan tweeted after the media leak of a video showing distribution of money by and among some members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly before 2018 Senate elections.
“They spend money to come to power & then use this political power to make money to purchase bureaucrats, media & other decision-makers to consolidate their power & rob nation’s wealth – money laundering it into offshore accounts/ foreign assets / palatial residences abroad,” the prime minister tweeted. “This is what the PDM cabal wants to now protect by supporting a corruption-friendly system. We are determined to stop this cycle of corruption & money laundering that is debilitating the nation,” the prime minister maintained.
A video filmed around the time of the Senate elections in 2018 started doing the rounds on social media earlier in the day on Tuesday, showing a couple of PTI lawmakers allegedly taking money from former PPP MPA Mohammad Ali Bacha.
In the video, stacks of currency can be seen sitting atop a table in front of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PTI lawmakers. Current KP Law Minister Sultan Mohammad Khan and MPA Ubaid Mayar can be seen in the video as well. Former PPP MPA Mohammad Ali Bacha can be seen handing over the stacks to the PTI parliamentarians. PTI’s Sultan Mohammad Khan can be seen receiving money in the video and keeping it in a bag. Sardar Idrees, another former MPA of the PTI, can also be seen taking money. Another former PTI MPA Meraj Humayun can be seen in the video, receiving the money and putting it in a bag as can be seen another former MPA of the party, Dina Khan.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Law Minister Sultan Khan tendered his resignation from the provincial cabinet on Tuesday, minutes after the chief minister tweeted that he had asked him to do so over his ‘alleged appearance in the video’ leaked on social media.
In his resignation letter, shared by KP CM Mehmood Khan on Twitter, Sultan said he felt “it was his moral duty and obligation to withdraw from the cabinet and offer my resignation”. He also expressed the hope that “justice will be done” and that he would be able to clear his name. “We will, as per vision of PM, uphold highest standards of accountability & transparency in this province,” the chief minister earlier wrote on Twitter.
Bacha, the former PPP MPA who can be seen allegedly distributing the currency notes to the PTI lawmakers, told a private TV channel that the video is an edited one. “Neither did I pay anyone nor did I receive [any bribe],” he said, adding that two separate videos were joined together to make this one.
Former PTI MPA Sardar Idrees, who can also be seen in the video, rejected allegations that he had sold his votes to the rival party. “The viral video is a result of political opponents’ conspiracies,” he said. “This is an edited video, it has nothing to do with reality,” he added.
The lawmaker said he will prove that he voted for the PTI in the Senate elections 2018 and hailed PM Imran Khan’s stance of holding an open ballot in the upcoming polls. He demanded that his vote be checked before a forensic audit of the video is conducted.
It merits mentioning here that the video has surfaced at a time when Senate elections are just around the corner and the government has already filed a presidential reference in the Supreme Court to seek its opinion on holding the polls through open ballot. The government has also issued an ordinance to hold the upcoming Senate election through open ballot.
The government and opposition parties are at loggerheads over the issue of open balloting in the Senate elections. The opposition has rejected the government’s demands to hold an open ballot during the polls. However, the surfacing of the ‘shameful’ video has vindicated the government’s stance about horse-trading in the Senate elections by political parties in order to illegally secure more seats in the Upper House than their rightful share through use of money.
