A former member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Ubaidullah Mayar has admitted to taking Rs10 million in bribe ahead of the Senate elections in 2018 on the “directives of then chief minister Pervaiz Khattak”.
A day earlier, a video of lawmakers had emerged wherein the MPs were seen taking loads of cash to sell their votes in the election that were held in March 2018.
In a response to this video, Mayar said the PTI government had paid Rs10 million to all the MPAs and then recorded it on camera secretly. He said the video was shot at the residence of then KP Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser — the custodian of the National Assembly now.
Khattak and Qaiser paid “us money and asked to vote for their candidates”. “At that time, Pervez Khattak had formed a committee of 17 MPAs and asked us to vote for them, paid us the money, and promised to give us party’s tickets,” he alleged in a conversation with Geo.
He said that he even went to the [Peshawar] High Court in relation to the matter, adding that he “stands by [his] statement and is “not afraid of anyone.”
Responding to a question regarding two people from another party who could be seen taking money in the video, Mayar said that “Pervez Khattak had promised to make them ministers if they joined the PTI”, adding that the “promise was later fulfilled”. He said that he was asked to return the money on the suspicion that he did not vote for PTI’s candidate.
After the allegations of horse-trading, Mayar was expelled from the PTI by party chairman Imran Khan. He had then joined the Pakistan People’s Party.
QAISER, KHATTAK REJECT ALLEGATIONS:
In response to the allegation, NA Speaker Asad Qaiser said that the video was not shot at Speaker House in Peshawar.
In 2019, Imran Khan had told [the party] about several PTI MPAs selling their votes for money, he said, adding that the entire party had decided to take action against the lawmakers involved in the controversy. “Statements like these are only an attempt to divert action from the actual issue,” he said, referring to the statement by Mayar.
In a press conference on Wednesday, former CM Khattak also rubbished the claims made by Mayar. He said the house where the dealing took place was not the Speaker House. “It’s a house somewhere in Islamabad and I was not present at the scene,” he said, distancing himself from the controversy.
‘LEAKED VIDEO’:
On Tuesday, the video first released by ARY News showed lawmakers belonging to the now ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (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 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 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.
