Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan on Thursday announced that PTI's 13 senators will support the Balochistan chief minister as he thinks the next Senate chairman should belong to Balochistan.

During his visit to Quetta to meet Balochistan Chief Minister Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo, the PTI chief said, "Everyone should try their utmost that a N-League candidate is not appointed as the Senate chairman."

Earlier, while speaking to media persons in Peshawar, Khan had said that at this point there was one thing his party was sure of, "that they do not want a Senate chairman from PML-N".

"We are afraid that if the Senate chairman is from the PML-N, they may enact laws to safeguard the Sharif family from the charges of corruption they face," he explained.

He added: "On the other hand, we also cannot work with a party like the PPP, so we are trying to come up with a strategy where a Senate chairman can be brought in [without the PPP's help] — ideally from Balochistan. It is a smaller province and a chairman [from there] will help [their cause]. That is what we are working towards, but the party will meet tomorrow to come up with a concrete strategy."

Commenting on Maulana Fazlur Rehman's meetings with the heads of both PML-N and PPP, Imran Khan said, "The book Alice in the Wonderland has a saying which explains this [strategy] perfectly: 'When you don't know where you want to go, it does not matter which road you take'."

He added: "Since he does not have an ideology of his own, he [Fazl] can join anyone."

Speaking about horsetrading allegations against members from his party, he said: "I have also seen the lists of members [who allegedly sold their votes] that are circulating on social media; however, we cannot remove someone from the party based on rumours since the voting itself was secret. If we do that, the members can turn around and approach the court saying that they have been removed from the party without proof."

"We cannot prove our case in court based on allegations made on social media. These people have purposefully set up such a system which enables such acts. We want the system to be changed so that it is transparent," Khan said.

"We kept saying that the Senate electoral system should be reformed; however, the two major parties of the country did not agree to it since they have their own vested interest in keeping the old system going," the PTI chairman added.

Horsetrading allegations and ECP notices

After the results of the Senate elections were announced, various politicians had expressed extreme scepticism over political parties grabbing seats in the Senate despite lack of significant representation in the provincial assemblies.

“Senate elections yet again witnessed shameful horse-trading where MPAs bought and sold their votes as the country witnessed this sale of their ‘elected’ people to highest bidder. This shows moral decline of our political class. In which Western democracy does such a sale happen?” Imran Khan had tweeted at the time.

“The horse-trading in the Senate elections allowed the PPP to win two seats in KP where they have only seven MPAs. This sort of electoral farce raises some serious ethical questions,” Khan had tweeted. He said the Senate elections had not only “devalued the Senate but the entire political class”.

On Tuesday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued Khan, among other parliamentary leaders, notices for levelling horse-trading allegations.

The leaders have been asked to appear before the body on March 14 and submit proof of their allegations.