ABBOTTABAD: PTI MPA and Abbottabad District Development Advisory Committee chairman Sardar Mohammad Idrees has rejected the horse-trading charge levelled by the party leadership against him.

During a news conference here on Saturday, the lawmaker swore on the Holy Quran that he didn’t sell his vote in the recent Senate elections.

“I rubbish the allegation of receiving Rs40 million to vote for a candidate other than the PTI’s during the Senate polls,” he said.

Mr Idrees, who was elected lawmaker from Galiyat area on the PTI ticket, said he had formally requested the chief election commissioner to intervene in the matter and reopen the bag carrying the votes polled in the KP Assembly to let the truth about the horse-trading issue come out.

He said his voters and supporters were badly hurt by the horse-trading allegation and that he would go to every relevant forum, including the Supreme Court, to prove his innocence on the matter.

The MPA said he had cast his vote in the Senate elections in line with the priority list provided by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and had done ‘nothing wrong’.

He said he was maligned at the behest of a ‘clique of conspirators’ and that if he named it publicly, it would remove the Senate voter bag from the ECP. Mr Idrees regretted that the party leadership didn’t ask him to clarify position on the horse-trading charge.

Published in Dawn, April 22nd, 2018