KARACHI: Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif has criticised the announcement made by Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan about initiation of disciplinary action against his party’s members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly who indulged in “horse-trading”, and termed the move an eyewash.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader, who is widely known as a staunch critic of the PTI, tweeted a news report regarding Mr Khan’s press conference in which he alleged that 20 lawmakers had received Rs40 million each to “sell” their votes in the Senate elections.

Mr Asif made it clear that he wasn’t impressed by the move and said that at a time when the five-year term of the assemblies was about to be completed such an action appeared to be “mere eyewash [rang baazi]”.

The senior politician from Sialkot tweeted that the PTI decision, however, had put the “institutions, particularly the Senate,” in a difficult position. “What will be the fate of the newly-elected Senators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the chairman and deputy chairman [of the Senate] elected on the votes of those senators?; whole process is void ab initio,” he added.

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2018