MARDAN: Provincial health minister Shahram Khan Tarakai on Wednesday urged the PTI’s leadership to expel the MPAs involved in the horse-trading during the recent Senate elections.

He was talking to reporters after attending a ceremony organised here in the Naseemabad Par Hoti area to celebrate the appointment of Asad Saleem as honorary honorary consul general of Bosnia in Pakistan.

The minister regretted horse-trading in the Senate polls and said the PTI’s leadership should make the culpable lawmakers of the party an example of so that no one dared do it in future.

“It’s really bad for our party that some of our MPAs were involved in horse-trading during the Senate elections. This has disheartened the party’s ideological leaders and workers,” he said.

Mr Tarakai said the lawmakers, who had sold their votes in the polls, should be exposed as they’d betrayed not only their leadership but also their voters to serve own interests.

He however said it was good to see the PTI win five Senate seats in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa despite horse-trading.

The minister said the PTI’s leadership would decide about the nominations for the Senate chairman and deputy chairman offices in the best interests of the party and the nation.

“All the five elected senators will work in line with the party’s manifesto,” he said.

The minister said the party would award tickets for the upcoming general elections to suitable candidates.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2018