Imran Khan opened treasure chests to buy votes: Gilani responds to PM's national address

Under mounting pressure from the Opposition to resign, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced on Thursday that he will seek a vote of confidence on Saturday. Khan made the announcement in a televised address to the nation during which he lashed out at the grand Opposition alliance for "making a mockery of democracy" and said that he will never let the corrupt politicians off the hook.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Yousaf Raza Gilani, who defeated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) leader and Imran Khan's close aide Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in Islamabad during Senate elections, said that Prime Minister called his own legislators for taking bribes and selling loyalties.

According to a report by ARY News, Gilani, on Thursday, said that it was Imran Khan himself who opened the treasure chests to buy votes so he can make Hafeez Shaikh a senator. He also urged Imran Khan to introspect himself instead of accusing others. He has himself admitted the fissures within his own party lines with the claims of taking confidence vote from the parliament, said Gilani, rhetorically asking whether it actually doesn't matter to PM Khan if he loses the premiership, ARY News reported.

'You have no future': Maryam to Imran Khan

Slamming Imran Khan, PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz on Thursday dismissed the allegations of rigging made by the ruling PTI government regarding the recent Senate by-elections in the country. "With my head bowed in humiliation, I say that money did not prevail [in Senate elections]. Rather, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) ticket prevailed," Maryam Nawaz said while addressing a general council meeting of the PML-N, as quoted by Geo News. "You and your Members of the National Assembly and Members of the Provincial Assembly know, you have no future and you have no party," she said.

PDM candidate and former PM Yusuf Raza Gilani defeated Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on Wednesday, giving a major blow to Prime Minister Khan who had personally campaigned for his Cabinet colleague. The PDM is an 11-party alliance set up in September last year to topple the government of Khan which it alleged came after rigging of elections in 2018.

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"I will take a vote of confidence the day after tomorrow (Saturday). I will ask my members (in the National Assembly) to show if they have confidence in me. If they say they have no confidence, I will sit on Opposition benches," the 68-year-old cricketer-turned-politician said.

Khan's party has 157 members in the 342-member National Assembly. Opposition PML-N and PPP have 84 and 54 members, respectively in the lower house of Parliament. President Arif Alvi has been conveyed to summon the National Assembly session on Saturday. The members of the ruling party and its allies have been asked to be present in Islamabad on Saturday.

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(With agency inputs)