QUETTA: Zeenat Shahwani advocate, an MPA who has been expelled from the Balochistan National Party-Mengal on allegations of not casting her vote in favour of the party’s candidate during the March Senate elections, has rejected the BNP-M’s decision.

Speaking at a press conference along with a large number of her supporters on Saturday, the MPA said she would not resign from the party on ‘false allegations’.

Ms Shahwani denied all allegations levelled against her by the party’s inquiry committee and said she would fight for her right to remain in the party.

Ms Shahwani was elected to the Balochistan Assembly on a reserved seat for women on the ticket of BNP-Mengal in the 2018 general election.

The party alleged that Ms Shahwani did not cast her vote for Advocate Sajid Tareen, who was a candidate of the BNP-Mengal on a technocrat seat in the Senate election. Sajid Tareen lost the election. A committee formed to probe the matter in its report held Zeenat Shahwani responsible for horse trading which caused the defeat of the party candidate.

MPA was accused of violating leadership’s decision during Senate election

“All allegations of the committee against me are fabricated and false,” she said, adding that she had cast her vote in the same panel in which her name was included. She said that for the last many days the party’s president and senior vice president were putting pressure for my resignation from the assembly, but she had decided to not come under pressure and would remain in the assembly.

She said that the report of the probe committee on the basis of which she was ousted from the party should be made public. “If they do not make the report public, I will make important revelations in the next few days to bring everything before the people of the province,” Zeenat Shahwani warned.

She said that the party president, instead of allowing her to utilise funds on development schemes, diverted the money to other constituencies.

“I was made an easy target as I am a woman just to save real accused who are responsible for the defeat of Sajid Tareen,” she said.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2021