Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, Saturday won vote of confidence three days after murky Senate (the Upper House) election. He got 178 votes from the National Assembly (the Lower House), after his party lost a crucial seat in the Senate election from Islamabad.
Imran Khan required 172 votes to win the confidence vote in the 342-member House. The ruling coalition had 180 members, while the opposition coalition has 160 members in the House.
In his speech Iman Khan said corruption was the biggest problem for the country, and his government would support the judiciary and the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for convicting the corrupt politicians." The society has to fight against corruption and decide it will not allow corruption. We have to raise our moral standards to fight the menace, and create a fair and just society."
He said Pakistan was not made for the billionaires like (the former Prime Minister) Nawaz Sharif and (former President) Asif Ali Zardari. The latter was known as a corrupt person and the former was declared a proclaimed offender following he left the country after looting the public wealth.
Nawaz Sharif, who went abroad on medical grounds, was now making political plans and delivering speeches from there, he added.
Imran Khan said both Nawaz Sharif and Asif Zardari, while in government, plundered public money and took the country's debt from $38.68 billion to $82.19 billion. The corruption cases against the two persons were made in the previous regimes, he remarked.
He said Yousaf Raza Gilani (as prime minister) refused to write a letter to the Swiss authorities on the court's orders for the recovery of $60 million stashed in the bank accounts of Switzerland.
Now the thieves and corrupt elements were trying to put pressure on him to get an NRO (National Reconciliation Ordinance), but he would continue his fight against them, he stated.
Controversial Senate election
The vote of confidence in Prime Minister Imran Khan came three days after Senate election where the government accused the Election Commission of Pakistan of not holding transparent election.
The government, in the lead up to the polls, had accused the opposition of being involved in illegal activity by using money to gain votes.
The blame-game gained intensity on March 2 when a video of Ali Haider Gilani, son of Pakistan Democratic Movement's Senate candidate Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, emerged in which he was telling the PTI MPAs how to discard votes.
Not surprisingly, Yousaf Raza Gilani defeated his PTI rival Hafeez Shaikh by five votes while seven votes were rejected in the high-profile contest between the two candidates.
Tellingly, the Election Commission of Pakistan rejected a government plea to take cognizance of the video and disqualify Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani.
Leaked video exposes colossal rigging, horse trading
Tellingly, a leaked video showing Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa lawmakers being paid bribes to vote against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's Senate candidates in the 2018 polls went viral on Feb 9, resulting in the resignation of a sitting minister and Prime Minister Imran Khan slamming the "corruption-friendly" system of secret ballot in elections.
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