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Thursday March 28, 2024

PM Imran Khan says 'selling' of Senate votes in leaked video reflects 'destruction of nation's morality'

Premier asks for resignation of KP minister Sultan Mohammad who can be seen among other PTI members in the video

By Ayaz Akbar Yousufzai & Web Desk
February 09, 2021

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday, referring to a leaked video allegedly showing PTI members accepting bribes prior to the 2018 Senate elections, said that it is reflective of the "total destruction of the nation's morality".

"The videos showing the shameful way in which politicians buy and sell votes in Senate reflects the total destruction of the nation's morality by successive ruling elites as they drowned the nation in debt, he wrote.

He said this "cycle of corruption and money laundering is a sordid tale of our political elite".

The premier said that these "elites" resort to "spending money" to come to power and then use that political power to "make money to purchase bureaucrats, media and other decision makers" so they can consolidate their power and "rob the nation's wealth".

PM Imran Khan said this money is then laundered and parked into offshore accounts, invested into foreign assets or used to buy "palatial residences" abroad.

He said the 11-party "cabal", the Pakistan Democratic Movement, "wants to now protect" all this by "supporting a corruption-friendly system".

"We are determined to stop this cycle of corruption and money laundering that is debilitating the nation," the prime minister said.

PM asks for KP law minister's resignation

The  remarks come moments after the premier's aide on political communication Shahbaz Gill said that the premier has decided to ask for the resignation of KP Minister for Law, Parliamentary Affairs and Human Rights Sultan Mohammad Khan, after a video allegedly showing him accept money from a PPP member surfaced.

"The prime minister has given the KP  chief minister instructions to this effect. A detailed inquiry will be held  after which a report will be issued," said Gill.

Gill said that today the difference between the prior governments and the government in power now has "become apparent".

"On the one hand Imran Khan dismissed 20 members from the party for selling votes. And today, after the video, he has also asked the KP law minister to resign.

"On the other hand, after the video of PML-N member Rana Mashood came to the fore, the party accorded him even greater respect," said the premier's aide.

"This is the difference between Imran Khan and these thieves," he added.

Leaked video

A 2018 video, reportedly dated prior to the Senate elections, has surfaced in which the KP law minister  can be seen what appears to be stacks of currency in a bag.

The video also shows current PTI MPA Ubaid Mayar, besides former MPAs Sardar Idrees, Mairaj Humayun and  Dina Khan, all allegedly accepting bribes from former PPP MPA Mohammad Ali Bacha.

Bacha, while speaking to Geo News insisted that the video is an "edited" one.

"Neither did I pay anyone nor did I receive [any bribe]," he said, adding that two separate videos were joined together to make this one.