Dr. Shahbaz Gill, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political Communication, revealed in a talk-show that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) senior leader Uzma Bukhari voted for Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar during the last Senate Elections.
However, Ms. Bukhari rubbished the allegations and urged Dr. Gill to be careful. “This is how the PTI leaders silence their opponents when they don’t have any argument,” she said.
Bukhari, who takes a strong stance to defend her leaders Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz, joined the party 8 years ago. She was elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on a reserved seat for women in 2002 General Elections. She was re-elected to the Provincial Assembly of the Punjab as a candidate of PPP on a reserved seat for women in 2008 elections. In February 2013, she joined Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N).
In 2018, PTI candidate Chaudhry Sarwar secured maximum votes (44) on the general category seat, giving a complete surprise to the ‘confident’ PML-N that had apparently done its homework to grab the 12th seat from Punjab as well.
Reports claimed that at least 10 PML-N MPAs, including women, had voted for Mr Sarwar, while even more than a dozen voted for PPP’s Shahzad Ali Khan, a relative of PPP’s senior vice president Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo.
Imran Khan named, shamed and expelled lawmakers
In 2018, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chief Imran Khan revealed the names of lawmakers who sold votes during the Senate elections and announced to expel them from the party. The PTI chief said that nobody took any action was not on the buying and selling of votes during the Senate election. Imran claimed that between 30-40 votes were sold in the Senate elections.
Nargis Ali, Dina Naz, Nagina Khan, Naseem Hayat, and Fauzia Bibi were named as the female PTI lawmakers who had sold votes. Among the male PTI lawmakers who were found guilty of selling votes by PTI’s investigation committee were Sardar Idrees, Obaid Mayar, Zahid Duranni, Abdul Haq, Qurban Khan, Amjid Afridi, Javed Naseem, Yasin Khali, Faisal Zaman, and Sami Alizayi.
The PTI chief also named Mairaj Humayun from Qaumi Watan Party, Khatoon Bibi and Babar Saleem from Awami Jamhuri Ittehad Pakistan, and Wajeeh uz Zaman from Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz for being involved in selling votes during the elections of the Upper House of the Parliament.
Analysts believe that Prime Minister Imran Khan took a principled stance and introduced the idea of holding the Senate Election through an open show of hands. Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani has backed holding Senate elections via open ballot in his response to a reference pertaining to the matter filed by the government in the Supreme Court.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Balochistan governments have also backed the federal government’s opinion of holding open-ballot polls, while Sindh has rejected the idea.
Read more: Government mulling over early Senate elections, seeks SC’s opinion
Although the government has filed a reference to seeking the apex court’s opinion about holding the election through an open ballot, yet an ordinance has been issued to apply the same. Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan has argued that the ordinance was promulgated in the context since the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was going to issue the Senate elections schedule on Feb 11 when the apex court was hearing the reference, explaining that the entire exercise would become academic if the court would give its opinion after Feb 12.