LAHORE: Three Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) members of the National Assembly have been offered money by the opposition parties to get their support for a no-confidence motion against the prime minister, the ruling party claimed on Wednesday.

“At least three PTI MNAs, including a woman and a minority parliamentarian, have reported to Prime Minister Imran Khan that they have been offered huge money to support opposition’s plan of no-confidence movement,” alleged federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry while speaking to media persons in Islamabad.

The minister did not disclose the identities of the three PTI MNAs who he said were approached by the opposition, but the opposition had recently claimed support of more than the required number of parliamentarians to make their no-trust move successful.

Criticising the leadership of the two major opposition parties, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party, Mr Chaudhry alleged that the two ‘most corrupt’ leaders met on Tuesday night to actually discuss about pooling money to buy the ruling PTI’s MNAs.

The federal minister said offering “bribe to the three PTI legislators” to favour the no-trust motion was a “shameful attitude”.

He said leadership of both parties were facing money-laundering cases and had submitted certificates that they were sick. But, he added, both were hale and hearty and met to discuss pooling of money for horse-trading. He alleged the PML-N and the PPP were striving to revive the corrupt practice of horse-trading and asserted that the PTI government would not let this happen. “We are keeping a close eye on opposition’s wrangling,” he said and paid tributes to the three PTI parliamentarians for reporting the attempts instead of switching their loyalty.

Mr Chaudhry then dared the opposition to table no-trust motion “within 24 hours” and asserted that they would know their reality.

The minister said the PML-N president was out of jail, because his cases were not being heard on a day-to-day basis. He added that there were bright chances that the cases would soon be taken up for hearing on a daily basis. He said the government was preparing for the next elections and more relief packages would be announced for people in coming weeks.

He also insisted that the country and the national economy were heading in the “right direction”.

PML-N response

In a swift and strong reaction to the allegation, the PML-N leadership expressed surprise that the blame was coming from the party that had allegedly rented candidates from different parties through ‘pressure’ and formed a ‘rented’ government. “The party (PTI) that revealed only two out of 26 bank accounts and offered bribe to opposition parliamentarians should look into their loot and plunder,” Maryam Aurangzeb of the PML-N remarked.

PML-N central information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb said the PTI should wake up to the reality that no one wanted to take ticket or contest election from PTI’s platform.

She said she could see Mr Khan’s rule ending within next 20 days. PTI spokespersons’ statements would change after the no-confidence movement, she added. “Shahzad Akbar was continuously making allegations against Shehbaz Sharif but now he has no courage to appear on national TV channels and defend his statements, which he made by showing piles of papers,” Ms Aurangzeb said.

In view of the public’s ever-deteriorating financial and social situation, Ms Aurangzeb said the opposition leaders were in the process of finalizing a parliamentary way out to oust the PTI government. “The opposition is confident as it has achieved the “magic number” and using parliament’s front door to enter and return to speak to the media, she asserted.

A PML-N leader said the party was receiving requests for election ticket from the PTI leaders but no commitment had been made so far, as the PML-N also wanted to look after the interests of its own workers and leaders. “In TV talk shows, the PTI leaders make tall claims but off-camera they request PML-N ticket for the next elections,” PML-N secretary-general Ahsan Iqbal said while talking to the media.

Published in Dawn, February 24th, 2022