Rana Sanaullah, the Interior Minister, said Thursday that 50 PTI lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly might vote against Parvez Elahi, the party’s candidate against PML-Hamza N’s Shehbaz in today’s run-off election for Punjab chief minister (Friday).
At a press conference after the meeting of the federal cabinet, Mr. Sanaullah said that “sensible” and “conscience-alive” PTI members might question Mr. Elahi’s selection as the candidate.
“PTI chairman Imran Khan had campaigned against Mr. Elahi and called him “the biggest thief in Punjab,” but now he was asking his party to vote for him,” the minister said. The lawmakers are also worried about Mr. Elahi’s promise to “immediately dissolve the assembly” on Mr. Khan’s orders, the minister said, adding that this shows how much Mr. Elahi values the assembly.
The minister disagreed with the PTI’s claim that the PML-N was “buying” its party members, but he did say that his party “talks to everyone” because that is their “political and democratic right.”
While saying that the PML-N “hates horse trading in politics,” Mr. Sanaullah reminded the PTI chairman that his party had brought in independent candidates after the 2018 elections.
“Who spent money on the people you invited into your party [PTI] after the 2018 elections? Who bought it with money? “Whose plane was used to get people there?” He asked Mr. Khan who had said that the PML-N was trying to buy the votes of PTI members with money.
Mr. Sanaullah also said that the PML-N doesn’t think Mr. Elahi has the right or the ability to be the chief minister, but the party won’t “buy and sell votes.”
Mr. Sanaullah, who is the president of the PML-Punjab N’s chapter, also said that his party’s recent loss in the by-elections doesn’t show how popular the PML-N is.
“Twenty seats can’t tell you much about how popular a party is. “The 20 people we gave tickets to carried the weight of Imran Khan’s inept and unpopular government in Punjab,” he said.
He also said that the people in the area were upset with the candidates, many of whom were ministers in the government led by Usman Buzdar, because they hadn’t done much to improve the area.
But he admitted that the party’s decision to give tickets to disgruntled PTI members was turned down by its workers and supporters, who didn’t camp out for these candidates with all their hearts.
Mahnur is MS(development Studies)Student at NUST University, completed BS Hons in Eng Literature. Content Writer, Policy analyst, Climate Change specialist, Teacher, HR Recruiter.
