KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah has said that the Article 266 of the constitution calls for holding Senate elections through a secret ballot.

“The allegation of sale and purchase of votes against the parliamentarians was aimed at defaming the public representatives, otherwise, the members have the right to vote according to their conscience," he said on Saturday while talking to the media at Election Commission of Pakistan which he visited along with his party candidates to file their nominations for Senate election.

Responding to a question, Shah said that the secret voting for Senate election has been clearly mentioned in the Article 266 of the constitution. “I am sure the decision [of the court] will be according to the constitutional guidance,” he said.

To a question about horse trading, the CM said that the allegation of purchase/sale of votes was aimed at defaming and maligning the parliamentarians, otherwise the members give votes to their favorite and most eligible candidates.

The parliamentarians of the ruling party [PTI] have revolted against party decisions because they have selected non-party members for senate election, therefore they have gone berserk.

“Our all the 12 candidates are purely party workers and have a long track record of loyalty with the party,” he said and added our one party candidate, Sadiq Memon had filed his nomination papers on Friday and today 11 others, nominated by the party for all three categories, general, technocrats and women, have filed.

To a question about video leak, Shah said that they were leaking old video on their own just to develop the impression that the votes were being sold, therefore the senate election should be held through a secret ballot. “This is a game being played by them [PTI] because they have the fear of losing the election.

Replying to a question about the success of PPP candidates, Shah said that all the 11 candidates of his party would return in the senate election. “We have fielded the best candidates and all of them have filed their nominations,” he said.

Talking about extending the date of filing of nomination papers, the CM said that while sitting here [in the election commission office] he learnt through electronic media that the Election Commission of Pakistan has extended the filing [of nomination papers] date. “Earlier, we had raised the issue that the date for filing of nomination papers has been made very close but nobody paid any heed and now when we have completed our nomination process the election commission has extended the date.

To a question about seeking support from other opposition parties for the senate election, the chief minister said that it was the strategy of the party and he would not disclose the strategy but “I am telling you we would get our senators elected,” he said.

Responding to a question about wheat shortage, the chief minister said that he was surprised that the federal cabinet had levelled the allegation of hoarding wheat on the Sindh government. “Why we will hoard it – but it was failure their failure to ensure to procure wheat in the Punjab,” he said and added “I am surprised that the PTI government has forgotten the statement of their [Federal] Minister Fakhar Imam on the floor of the national assembly that 6.6 MMT of wheat harvested in the Punjab had disappeared,” he said and added it was not disappeared but was smuggled which needed to be investigated by them.

He said that the federal government was pressing the Sindh government to release wheat in May which was not an established practice. “The wheat crop is harvested in Sindh in March and April, therefore the wheat remains available in the market in great quantity,” he said and added from November the wheat stocks in the mart start running out and the provincial government intervenes and starts releasing the wheat to stabilize the prices.

Shah brushed aside the impression that his government was settling Kashmiris in Sujawal. “It was a letter the federal government had written to the Sindh government, otherwise, there is no such proposal,” he said.