Coalition bribing provincial lawmakers ahead of Punjab election: Imran Khan

Pakistan's former prime minister Imran Khan on Wednesday alleged the ruling coalition alliance of bribing the provincial lawmakers ahead of the crucial Punjab chief minister's election.

The election is scheduled to be held on July 22 and Khan, who is also chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, claimed that millions of rupees were being offered to PTI members of provincial assembly (MPAs) to switch loyalties.

Today Lahore is seeing a repeat of the Sindh House horse-trading that happened in Islamabad with up to Rs 50 crores being offered to buy MPAs, Khan said in a tweet.

He also claimed that the main brain in the buying of members was former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari, who he alleged was purchasing people with looted wealth and should be jailed.

This is not only an attack on our democracy but also on moral fabric of our society. Had SC (Supreme Court) taken action & debarred these turncoats for life it would have acted as a deterrent. Don't Handlers of US regime change conspiracy's imported government realise severe damage being done to nation? he said in another tweet. Khan, who uses local popular expressions to lambast his opponents, says that the current government was imported as it was set up with the US conspiracy.

His reference to the Sindh House in Islamabad is reminiscent of the vote of no confidence when several ruling PTI lawmakers had announced in March that they would not follow the party line ahead of the voting against Khan.

Allegedly they were kept in the Sindh House building which is owned by the Sindh province where the PPP has its government.

As Khan alleged use of ill-gotten money by Zardari in the upcoming provincial chief minister's election, his spokesperson Shehbaz Gill said that a PTI lawmaker already sold his loyalty.

Our one MPA has been bought by Zardari and the PML-N for Rs250 million, he said.

PTI's former information minister Fawad Chaudhry alleged that a party lawmaker from Rahim Yar Khan district, Masood Majeed, had fled to Turkey after being bribed with Rs 400m.

He also accused Zardari of being behind it.

"Asif Ali Zardari is offering this money. He has set up a marketplace for buying and purchasing MPAs. Where do you want to take this country? We demand that Atta Tarar, Zardari and Rana Sanaullah should be put in prison," he said.

Tarar is a provincial leader of PML-N and Sanaullah is interior minister, who said last week how PTI can win the chief minister election if five lawmakers vanished. Tarar in a media interaction rejected the allegations about him and his party leaders.

In the house of 381, the winner need 186 votes and Fawad Chaudhry claimed that his party had support of 188 lawmakers who would vote for Pervaiz Elahi, a joint nomine of PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid.

The ruling coalition is making all efforts to keep the incumbent chief minister Hamza Shehbaz in Punjab, the heartland of Pakistani politics.