Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memom rejected on Friday horse trading allegations levelled by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Asif Ali Zardari, and demanded an apology, Aaj News reported.

He was addressing a news conference in Karachi after Imran Khan's accusations against PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.

“I challenge Imran Khan to prove that even one penny was given to any of his MPAs by any member of the Pakistan Peoples Party,” he said, and urged the PTI chief to tender an apology otherwise.

He said that PTI and PML-Q’s joint candidate Pervaiz Elahi received exact number of votes – 186 – as claimed by Imran Khan. On the contrary, two of the PML-N’s MPAs were missing, raising doubts that they were swayed by the PTI.

“It is being said that those MPAs were lured by PTI to flea abroad in order to abstain from voting in the crucial election for the Punjab’s chief ministership,” Sharjeel said, accusing PTI of doing the dirty work and blaming it on others.

Referring to PTI’s call for countrywide protests against the Deputy Speaker Punjab’s ruling that retained Hamza Shehbaz as the Chief Minister of the province, Sharjeel said that the Sindh government will not allow protesters to break the law.

“They [PTI workers] are gathering at Shahrah-e-Faisal. Protest is their democratic right, but we will not let them block roads or create a chaos in the country,” he said, noting that the Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah had issued strict directives in this regard.