Islamabad (TIP): Under mounting pressure to resign, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday lashed out at the grand Opposition alliance for “making a mockery of democracy” and said that he will never let the corrupt off the hook. Khan made the remarks during an address to the nation ahead of seeking a vote of confidence in a bid to restore the legitimacy of his government in the wake of the defeat of finance minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in hotly-contested Senate elections on Wednesday.

Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate and former prime minister Yusuf Raza Gilani defeated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Shaikh, 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. “I will take a vote of confidence the day after tomorrow (Saturday). I will ask my members 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.

“If I am out of the government, I will go to the people and bring them out to continue my struggle for the country. I will not let these traitors (who plundered the country) sit in peace. I call them traitors because they are looters,” Khan said. Khan’s party has 157 members in the 342-member National Assembly. Opposition PML-N and PPP have 84 and 54 members, respectively.

Explaining the political situation in the country in the wake of Wednesday’s Senate elections, Khan said that it was important to talk about it and explain it, because the problems in Pakistan can be understood through the kind of election that happened.

The country’s leadership comes from within the members of parliament “and here you have people becoming Senators after bribing others,” he said.

“The one who becomes a senator and wants to become one uses money and who do they buy? Members of Parliament… What joke is happening with our democracy? What kind of democracy is this?” a visibly upset Khan said. Khan recalled that in the 2018 Senate elections, his party’s 20 lawmakers had sold their votes after accepting money. “We expelled them but then I saw that it wasn’t just me saying this, but the two main parties that signed the Charter of Democracy — the PML-N and PPP — had agreed that there should be an open ballot because money is exchanged in the Senate elections,” he added. “I now ask you. Why do you think the same parties who wanted an open ballot now geared all their efforts to have a secret ballot?” Khan said, attacking the Opposition parties which demanded a secret ballot during Senate elections. (PTI)