KARACHI: Minister of the Interior Rana Sanaullah warned on Thursday that 50 PTI legislators in the Punjab Assembly might vote against Parvez Elahi.
A runoff election for the position of Punjab chief minister will take place today, and Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah has said that as many as fifty PTI MPs in the Punjab Assembly may vote against Parvez Elahi, the party’s nominee against PML-Hamza N’s Shehbaz. (Friday).
After the federal cabinet meeting, Mr. Sanaullah held a news conference where he suggested that “intelligent” PTI members with “living consciences” might dispute Mr. Elahi’s nomination.
It was stated by the minister that PTI leader Imran Khan “had campaigned against Mr. Elahi and called him ‘the worst dacoit of Punjab,'” before the minister asked his party to vote for him.
The minister noted that the members are worried about Mr. Elahi’s comment that he would “instantly dissolve the assembly” on Mr. Khan’s orders, calling it an indicator of the importance Mr. Elahi places on the assembly.
Admits that PML-N employees did not campaign for the party’s candidates in the by-elections and claims that Imran used to refer to the PTI’s CM candidate as “Punjab’s largest dacoit.”
The minister denied allegations made by the PTI that the PML-N was “buying” its party members, while conceding that his party is “in contact with everyone” as is their “political and democratic right.”
Mr. Sanaullah reminded the PTI chairman that the PML-N “despises the politics of horse trading,” notwithstanding his earlier assertion that the party did not welcome independent candidates.
Who paid for those you accepted into the PTI following the elections of 2018? What did they pay for it? Which airline’s plane was used to transport these people? Mr. Khan was confronted with the accusation that the PML-N was attempting to buy the votes of PTI members, and he inquired who was making such claims.
Mr. Sanaullah continued, saying that while the PML-N believes “Mr.Elahi neither has the right nor the capacity to become the chief minister,” the party will not engage in “buying and selling of votes.”
Mr. Sanaullah, president of the PML-N in Punjab, defended his party after its recent drubbing in the by-elections, claiming that the loss is “not reflective of the PML-popularity.” N’s
The success of a political party cannot be determined by how many seats it receives. The burden of Imran Khan’s ineffective and unpopular Punjab government was borne by the twenty persons to whom we had given tickets, he remarked.
He went on to say that voters were angry at the candidates, many of whom had served as ministers in Usman Buzdar’s government, because of the absence of infrastructure improvements promised by the candidates.
He stated that the poor performance of the PMLN in the Punjab by-elections, in which the party won only 4 of 20 seats, was not “indicative of the PMLN’s popularity.” He stated that it was a “mistake” for the PMLN to provide seats to PTI defectors, given that they had to run against voters who were turned off by Imran Khan’s “incompetent and unpopular Punjab government.”
He said this was the reason why it was a “mistake” for the PMLN to provide seats to PTI defectors. However, he emphasized that the popularity of any party could not be gauged based on only 20 seats in the legislature.
He asserted that one of the reasons these candidates were unsuccessful in garnering the support of PMLN leaders and workers was because they were unable to do so, which was a contributing factor to their electoral loss.
