An old but viral video has shown former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) lawmaker Sardar Idrees swearing on the Holy Quran that he didn’t receive any money to sell his Senate vote.
On Tuesday, a leaked video recorded ahead of the 2018 Senate elections had purportedly shown Idress and a number of other colleagues of his receiving what were reported to be bribes for their votes for the upper house of the parliament.
“I deny these allegations of receiving Rs4 crores (40 million) and swear that I voted as per the list given to me by the chief minister,” Idrees could be heard as saying in the video of a press conference he reportedly held after his expulsion from the now ruling PTI over said accusations.
As per the details of the episode, the video first released by ARY News showed lawmakers belonging to the PTI counting bundles of cash and then stashing the same in a bag.
The video showed how, during the critical period, loyalties were switched by PTI’s 20 KP lawmakers, all of whom were reportedly expelled by the party’s central leadership after an investigation. The money was dished out in Feb-March 2018, it was reported.
It may be noted that the damning video comes at a time when Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan expresses aims to hold Senate elections through open ballot in 2021 in a bid to eliminate horse-trading. Defending his party’s move to hold the elections through open ballot, the premier had last week spoken of bribes paid to buy loyalties, revealing that he himself had been offered some.
He had further revealed that 20 members of the KP Assembly belonging to the PTI, likely the ones from the video, were paid Rs50 million each during the last Senate polls to vote in favour of certain candidates.
On February 6, President Dr Arif Alvi signed Elections (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 that will pave way for the organisation of Senate elections through open ballot.
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