December 31, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 26, 1423

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, Dec 30: Federal Minister for Water and Power Aftab Sherpao on Monday rejected the impression that the government resorted to horse-trading and applied pressure through intelligence agencies to secure opposition members’ support for Prime Minister Jamali in the vote of confidence.

Talking to reporters at the Parliament House after the prime minister secured vote of confidence, the minister said that it was not that easy for the intelligence agencies to pressure an elected member to switch loyalty as he could raise the issue in parliament.

“The members who voted in favour of Mir Zafarullah Jamali have acted according to their conscience, like Dr Sher Afgan who supported the government though he was not pressured,” Sherpao observed.

He said that increase in the number of votes from 172 to 188 showed that the members had full confidence in the leadership of Mir Zafarullah Jamali.

When asked whether more members were to join the ruling party, he simply said: “Wait and see.”

When asked whether he considered that the PPP was still the largest political party of the country, Sherpao said situation would be clear in the next general election.

When asked why those members were also being accommodated in the ruling party’s folds against whom corruption references were pending in accountability courts, he said that a wrong impression had been created in this regard.

He said that he was falsely implicated in the six-year-old New City corruption reference, adding that he returned to Pakistan after he was acquitted in other references.

Sherpao did not endorse the suggestion that he left the country in a mysterious manner, saying when Pervez Musharraf assumed power, he was in the USA. “I do not think I left the country in a mysterious manner,” he observed.