Sindh Governor Imran Ismail said Saturday that the PTI would probe into the matter of 16 MNAs who voted for the Opposition candidate in the Senate polls. The governor was talking to media in Islamabad where he had come to attend the proceedings of the National Assembly for the vote of confidence of Prime minister Imran Khan.
“The party would investigate into the Senate vote. Everything would become clear who are those 16 lawmakers,” Ismail said, referring to the March 3 polls in the National Assembly for the Islamabad seat of Senate when the Opposition’s candidate defeated PTI’s Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh.
Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani of the Pakistan Democratic Movement had bagged 169 votes against 164 of the government’s candidate prompting calls from the Opposition of PM Imran’s resignation. He said the prime minister wanted to show that the NA has trust in him and he took the step (of seeking the vote of confidence) on his own. “Everyone knows what happened in Hafeez Sheikh’s case,” the senior PTI leader said.
Governor Ismail said that they are hopeful that PM Imran Khan would get the vote of confidence wtith complete numbers.
PTI unaware who voted for Gilani
Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry Friday said they (party) did not know the names of parliamentarians who voted for Gilani against the party line. Talking to Geo News programme “Naya Pakistan”, he said, “A total of 179 members will poll their votes for Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday [vote of confidence]. PTI had already expelled 20 members for violating the party rules,” he added.
“The prime minister did not talk about not proceeding against those 16 members who were found guilty. If Ali Zaidi has given any names to the prime minister, then I do not know,” he said. “We have no proof who took money for vote. Our woman candidate got 174 votes, while five votes were rejected, and these are our total numbers,” he added. He said it was the responsibility of the Election Commission to decide about videos and audios.
Read more: Senate Elections: ECP takes notice after PM Khan’s speech
“At present, we are concentrating on the vote of confidence,” he said.
The Senate Elections were quite disturbing for the PTI. According to the returning officer, who announced the results after counting ended in the National Assembly, six of the total 340 ballots cast in the National Assembly were rejected. Gillani obtained 169 votes, whereas Shaikh got 164. One vote was not cast. The MPs were required to vote for 37 vacant seats of the Senate with 11 senators already elected unopposed from Punjab due to withdrawals from opposing candidates.
Polling was held for 12 seats each of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 11 of Sindh and two of the federal capital. MPAs from the three provincial assemblies cast their vote for the candidates fielded from Balochistan, KP and Sindh, while MNAs voted for the representatives from the federal capital.
“PTI has unanimously decided that Prime Minister Imran Khan will take a vote of confidence from the National Assembly,” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said while addressing a press conference along with Federal Ministers Shafqat Mehmood, Asad Umar, Shireen Mazari, Fawad Chaudhry, Syed Ali Haider Zaidi, Hammad Azhar and others.