Senate election video scandal: Cabinet body decides against conducting forensics

ISLAMABAD: A sub-committee of the federal cabinet, probing the leaked video showing lawmakers allegedly receiving money ahead of Senate elections in 2018, has decided against conducting forensics of the footage, ARY NEWS reported on Wednesday.

ARY NEWS anchor Arshad Sharif who was the first to break the story appeared before the cabinet’s sub-committee which met on Wednesday.

The committee after deliberations decided that the video showing the lawmakers was original and they had no proof to challenge its authenticity.

The cabinet body also decided to summon the Director General Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Director General Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), besides also summoning the representative of the special branch in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province.

Giving details regarding the meeting, PM’s aide on Accountability Shehzad Akbar said that the cabinet body would submit its report within a month. “It has been decided to collect evidence regarding the matter,” he said and asked the public to submit any evidence with them to the committee.

Akbar said that the next meeting of the cabinet’s sub-committee would be held on Thursday.

The first meeting of the committee formed by PM Imran Khan to investigate against the lawmakers involved in horse-trading during Senate elections in 2018 held on Saturday in Islamabad.

It is pertinent to mention here that on February 09, a video surfaced which exposed the horse-trading during Senate elections in 2018 by some party lawmakers who could be seen as counting bundles of currencies and hiding it inside the bag.

The video obtained by ARY News shows how the loyalty of 20 lawmakers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was changed after horse-trading during Senate elections in 2018. The lawmakers had been ousted from the political party by the central leadership after holding a thorough investigation.

It exposed that PTI lawmakers had been made hefty payments in 2018 during Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) polls. The lawmakers can be seen counting banknotes and putting it inside a bag.

Sources told ARY News that the vote-trading had been carried out from February 20 to March 2, 2018.