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KARACHI: Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Tuesday urged the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) and speaker of the National Assembly to take notice of a new audio leak, which purportedly features voices said to belong to PML-Q MNAs Hussain Elahi and Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain talking about abducting a woman member of the lower house of parliament, Dawn.com reported.
The authenticity of the clip, which began circulating on social media platforms on Monday night, could not be independently verified.
In the clip, two men can be heard discussing the number of votes the prime minister would need to retain the confidence of the National Assembly.
One voice — believed to belong to Hussain Elahi — points out that the parliamentary leader (of the Parvez Elahi faction of the PML-Q) is Moonis Elahi, who has the backing of two MNAs, while the other side has three.
The person on the other end, believed to be Wajahat Hussain, responds, “a woman can be abducted”.
“Yes… if a woman is [made to] disappear then something can happen”, Mr Hussain purportedly responds in the audio clip.
Around the end of the audio clip, Mr Hussain allegedly says “I’ll give the idea to Moonis bhai”. In response, the person on the other end says: “It will just take 10 minutes to abduct the woman… the work will be done in Lahore.”
Throughout the audio clip, which is a little longer than one minute, none of the two men name the woman MNA whose abduction they were supposedly planning.
According to the National Assembly website, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q) holds five seats in the lower house; four general seats and one reserved seat for women.
The PML-Q MNAs currently listed on the NA website are: Chaudhry Salik Hussain, Hussain Elahi, Moonis Elahi, Tariq Bashir Cheema and Ms Farukh Khan.
Reacting to the alleged leaked audio, the interior minister said that planning the abduction of a woman was a condemnable act.
He said that PTI chairman Imran Khan and his intention to “buy the conscience” of PML-Q and PML-N lawmakers had been “exposed before the public”.
“Which court will give justice to party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and MNA Farah Khan [sic]? CJ should take note of the audio and this trade of conscience,” Mr Sanaullah tweeted, adding that the NA speaker should do the same.
Published in Dawn, January 18th, 2023
