Horse-trading charges: PHC moved to get new senators from KP disqualified

PESHAWAR: A petition was moved Tuesday in the Peshawar High Court (PHC) seeking disqualification of newly elected senators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa under Article-62(1)(f) of the Constitution for being fully involved in horse-trading by giving bribe to the members of the provincial assembly for their election.

The petition was filed by Gohar Khan, a resident of Peshawar, through his lawyer Gohar Rehman Khattak.

The petitioner made all the newly-elected senators, Senate chairman, Election Commission of Pakistan and KP chief minister respondents in the petition.

It was stated in the facts of the case that one of the political parties has issued show-cause notices to 20 of its MPAs in the KP Assembly alleging they had received Rs40 million each from the Senate candidates to cast votes for them.

It was submitted that the action against the said MPAs was taken on receiving proper proof of their involvement in horse-trading, thus making them open to punitive action from within the party as well as referring their cases to the NAB authorities.

“Apparently, a huge amount has been received by many of the Members of the Provincial Assembly, against whom action is being taken by their respective political parties as per their constitutions requirement,” it said.

However, it was pointed out before the high court that a question arises as to who had given this money to the MPAs and it was very much clear that the newly elected senators had given this money to the MPAs.

It was stated that under Article-62 (I) (f) of the Constitution only those persons shall be qualified to be elected or chosen as members of Majlis-e-Shura (Parliament) who are sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest and ameen.

“That on the touchstone of the above provisions of the Constitution, how the elected members, each of whom, has spent about more than 70 crores of rupees, to become the member of the Senate could be presumed to be able to hold the membership of the Senate of Pakistan, who had made his entry through illegal means and thus is neither a sagacious nor righteous and nor a honest person,” it said.

The petitioner submitted that the MPAs, who had received show-cause notices, claimed that if there were allegations of receiving amount from elected candidates, then the political party head and chief minister had also received a huge amount for awarding them party tickets for Senate election and this was also supported by the fact that the candidates were billionaires.