‘Consortium’ for horse-trading in Senate polls

LAHORE: The PTI government has decided to solicit the Supreme Court’s guidance as how to introduce an open, identifiable voting system in the forthcoming Senate elections.

This was disclosed by a highly-placed source in the federal government during an off-the-record talk with some senior media persons, here on Saturday.

When asked, the office-holder, who is also a confidante of Prime Minister Imran Khan besides having an experience of working in Punjab government, as to what led the federal government to go, so emphatically, for an open Senate voting against the provisions of the Constitution, he said that they had received a report that a “consortium” had been formed to muster finances to buy parliamentarians’ loyalties.

If that materialised, it would be like getting an NRO, the federal government source who is active on mainstream and social media added. He continued: “Only an open, identifiable voting can counter these moves”.

He said: “I received a call from Balochistan. Someone, whose name I won’t disclose promised to meet me on the eve of Senate elections. I asked him which party or its parliamentarians were behind him. He said that he would contest as an independent candidate. I asked him whether it was manageable. The Senator-to-be said that he had arranged Rs400 million by selling his land that would enable him to buy (loyalties) of eight members of the assembly, each demanding Rs50 million for ensuring his success.”

The source was asked another question as to why the prime minister was sometimes informed, quite belatedly, about certain developments that require timely decisions. He said: “Bureaucracy, especially the top-guns, is not easily manageable. What maximum can one does to them. One can just do shuffling or re-shuffling, transferring the civil servants from one post to the other. Nothing else, nothing more can be done.”