Senate Elections 2018 Horse-Trading: Video Confirms Rigging

News Desk

Twenty pairs of shoes taken from the mosque at Parliament House

Senate Election 2018 alleged horse-trading seem to get validated this evening when a video came in media and got hyped all over social media. On February 9, 2021, a video has surfaced on News channels and Social media showing Senate election horse-trading in which some party lawmakers could be seen as counting bundles of currencies and hiding them inside the bag. The video was first aired by the Ary News channel and then in no time, it was all over the internet.

This video has come at a time when the Government of Pakistan is trying to make amendments in the Election Ordinance2017 to end the secret balloting in the upper house of parliament. The joint opposition in the Senate has opposed it rigorously. After that, the government decided to amend the Election Ordinance by ratifying Presidential Ordinance.

President ratifies Elections (Amendment) Ordinance 2021

President Arif Alvi on Saturday signed the Elections (Amendment) Ordinance 2021 to pave the way for Senate elections to be held via an “open and identifiable ballot”.
According to the Ordinance, changes have been brought to Sections 81, 122, and 185 of the Elections Act, 2017.
The Ordinance will come into effect “at once” and “extend to the whole of Pakistan” and was mean to sub horde trading in Senate.
It has been made subject to a pending opinion by the Supreme Court on a presidential reference in the matter.

The Reaction of PPP on Election Amendment Ordinance

PP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday alleged that the government was afraid and did not have confidence in its own parliamentarians, saying that their lawmakers would vote against them even in an open ballot in the upcoming Senate elections.
“The government wants to make the Senate elections controversial like the general elections were made controversial,” said the PPP chairperson, adding that the federal government was attempting to do so through ordinances and references.
He said that the “right to secret ballot” was available for every citizen of Pakistan so that no one could impede their right to elect their representative without fear of any reprisal or revenge of any sort.

The Reaction of the Government on video

Senate Election Horse Trading

Prime Minister Imran Khan tweeted a thread about the alleged Senate horse-trading video.

Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar said on Tuesday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government wanted to end the corrupt practice of horse-trading from the Senate elections once and for all.
The minister’s comments came during a media briefing, held along with Information Minister Shibli Faraz, wherein the ministers ran a recently surfaced video of before the 2018 Senate elections showing lawmakers from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa indulging in horse-trading.
“You all must have seen this video circulating today, of before the 2018 elections. This is why we thought it is imperative to stress the importance of Senate election reforms again,” Umar added.

Federal Minister of Science and Technology Fawad Choudhry shared the list of the MPA expelled by PTI on Senate election 2018 horse-trading and alleged rigging.