Senate election: Defence minister warns opposition against horse-trading

NOWSHERA: Federal Minister for Defence Pervez Khattak on Sunday alleged that opposition parties were opposing open ballot as they wanted horse-trading in the upcoming Senate election.

“The two major political parties – Pakistan People’s Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz - had signed Charter of Democracy in which open ballot was supported but now they are objecting to it,” he said this while speaking at a gathering after inaugurating new electricity feeder at Union Council Gandheri and Union Council Kheshgi Bala here.

He warned that the government would not allow anyone to indulge in horse-trading.

He said that the day of their accountability had come that was why politicians affiliated to opposition parties were making hue and cry.

Pervez Khattak said that the opposition parties were holding the protests to exert pressure on the government to withdraw the corruption cases against them, but it would never happen in the presence of the PTI government.

The country, he alleged, had been suffering due to their corruption but the government would bring back the looted money at all costs.

He said the Pakistan Democratic Movement long march on March 26 would also flop like its previous public meetings in the country.

Pervez Khattak said the PTI would win the PK-63 seat despite the alliance of opposition parties in the by-election.

He said staging rallies and public meetings was the right of the opposition parties and the government would never impede them but he insisted that these events would fail to pressure the government.

The federal minister said that the opposition parties wanted to save the PML-N and the PPP leadership, which, he said, was facing inquiries by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for alleged corrupt practices.

He said Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman, PML-N Maryam Nawaz and PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were not on the same page as they lacked the strategy and the agenda to oust or change the government.

The federal minister defended the NAB and rejected the opposition parties allegations that the anti-graft body was victimizing the rivals of the government. “The cases, both the PML-N and PPP leaders are facing, were not instituted during our tenure,” he claimed.

Pervez Khattak said the prime minister still enjoyed the support of the masses and the PTI was the only popular political party in the country.

Pervez Khattak enumerated the development schemes he had completed in Nowshera.