PPP seeks action against Imran over development funds, meetings with MPs
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Nayyar Bukhari on Wednesday wrote to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, drawing his attention to the release of development funds by Prime Minister Imran Khan to MPs and senators as well as his meetings with lawmakers ahead of the elections for the upper house,
In his letter, Bukhari maintained since the announcement to release funds by the prime minister ahead of Senate elections constitutes a breach of the ECP code of conduct, therefore action be taken against him.
In January, PM Imran, meeting the long-standing demand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MPs for development funds for their constituencies, announced a grant of Rs500 million for each member of the National Assembly (NA) and provincial assemblies to carry out development schemes for their voters.
Responding to the development, opposition parties had criticised the premier for doing so with Senate elections weeks away, calling the move a “political bribe”.
On the other side of the board, Senate Standing Committee on Information and Broadcasting Chairman Senator Faisal Javed Khan on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Imran was the sole leader standing against corrupt practices and struggling to bring transparency in the country’s electoral process.
Talking to media persons outside the Parliament House, he said that PM Imran, to ensure transparency and discourage anti-democratic values, had expelled twenty of his own party’s members of provincial assemblies (MPAs) for their involvement in unfair practices in the previous Senate elections. The opposition, on the other hand, was protecting the corrupt practices and wanted to maintain the status quo for their personal gains, he remarked. Prime Minister Imran, he said, since day-one had conveyed that no corrupt person would be offered a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) and he “still remains firm in his stance.”
He recalled the time when the Kashmir issue was being highlighted at the international fora, and the opposition had held sit-ins and demonstrations which badly affected the Kashmir cause.
He said, be it legislation on FATF or the Covid-19 issue, the opposition tried to blackmail the incumbent government and sought personal relaxations in their cases of corruption at the cost of national interests. Their moves were never given any weight by the honest PTI leadership, he maintained.
He said that Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM) resignation card also failed when their own parliamentarians refused to resign from the assemblies and they even could not win public support to fulfil their personal agenda.
The previous regimes, Javed said, have promoted the culture of corruption, nepotism and rigging. As a result “we lost social, moral and democratic values in the country,” he added.
These corrupt elements and their families, he said were flourishing while the poor people of the country were becoming even poorer.
He further said that it was imperative now to bring transparency in the system if “we want to protect the future of our coming generations and want to give them a better Pakistan”.
He claimed that PTI would win today’s Senate election.