By NP Newsroom
IMRAN Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf (PTI) accused 20 of it lawmakers of “selling their votes” and served notice on them for what they’d done, at the same time conceding that some of his own PTI candidates had “paid for party tickets in the last general elections.” But, he said, “This time I would advise all aspirants not to give money to anyone this time” since he would be calling the shots on whom to give election tickets to in his party and whom not to.
PTI chairman Imran Khan warned that if the errant lawmakers did not respond to the notice they were served or failed to satisfy the party with their reply, they would be expelled from the party and their cases would be sent to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).
Imran said his PTI was the first ever party in Pakistan’s political history that had acted against its members such a misdeed that has pervaded Pakistani politics for the last 40 years.
But many of these suspects have gone on Tv to deny the allegation.
Saying that announcing the names was distressful, Imran said he knew of some names from when they began to “negotiate” but he decided to wait till he solid information.
Sixteen lawmakers – 11 male and five female – had contested elections from the PTI platform, while four had joined PTI on defecting from other parties.
The 11 male lawmakers are Javed Naseem, Obaid Mayar, Zahid Durrani, Abul Haq, Qurban Khan, Sami Alizayi, Sadrar Idrees, Amjid Afridi, Yasin Khalil, Faisal Zaman and Arif Yousaf.
The five female are Nargis Ali, Deena Naz, Nagina Khan, Fouzia Bibi and Naseem Hayat.
Those who defected are Babar Saleem and Ms Khatoon Bibi [both from Awami Jamhoori Ittehad], Wajihus Zaman from PML-N and Meraj Hamayun from Quami Wata Party.
Imran Khan said his party would act against these people even though that meant problems for PTI because the general elections were around the corner.
Asked how the PTI had identified the errant MPAs, Imran Khan said the probe committee reached the conclusion after analysing the voting patterns of party lawmakers in the Senate election.
