Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Member National Assembly (MNA) Nusrat Wahid on Sunday accused Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of offering her a bribe of 160 million rupees and NA ticket in the next general polls for voting against Prime Minister Imran Khan in the no-confidence motion.

“The PPP offered me twice Rs 160 million and NA ticket for next general elections. I will not take ‘haram’ (ill-gotten) money,” she said in a video message that was shared from the ruling party’s official social media accounts.

The offers were made from PPP Punjab and Sindh chapters, she claimed. “Rejecting such a big amount is a difficult thing to do—but what would I do with this money—I think the ill-gotten wealth not only disfigures the faces, it destroys the generations,” she said.

“And when generations get destroyed, nothing is more damaging than that— one should stay content with the little amount of money they have,” the PTI legislator said.

She did not name anyone in the video that was widely circulated on social media on Sunday with government functionaries and other PTI office-bearers, claiming that the video validated their allegations of horse-trading/ floor crossing ‘patronised’ by the opposition parties against the PM in their efforts to make no-confidence motion successful.

The PPP has denied the PTI MNAs’ allegations. Recently, footages surfaced of disgruntled PTI lawmakers who were residing in Sindh House. On Saturday, the PTI announced to have issued show-cause notices to 13 disgruntled lawmakers.

The MNAs who were issued show notices were: 1) Noor Alam Khan (NA-27 Peshawar-I), 2) Dr Muhammad Afzal Khan Dhandla (NA-98 Bhakkar-II), 3) Nawab Sher Waseer (NA-102 Faisalabad-II), 4) Raja Riaz (NA-110 Faisalabad-X), 5) Ahmed Hussain Deharr (NA-154 Multan-I), 6) Qasim Noon (NA-159 Multan-VI), 7) Abdul Ghafar Wattoo (NA-166 Bahawalnagar-I), 8) Syed Basit Ahmad Sultan (NA-185 Muzaffargarh-V), 9) Aamir Talal Gopang (NA-186 Muzaffargarh-VI), 10) Riaz Mehmood Khan Mazari (NA-195 Rajanpur-III), 11) Wajiha Qamar (elected on a reserved seat for women), 12) Nuzhat Pathan (elected on a reserved seat for women) and 13) Ramesh Kumar (elected on a reserved seat for non-Muslims).

On Saturday, the PM said that the dissident lawmakers who were “misled for one reason or the other by the cunning opposition should be given benefit of the doubt, if they want to come back to the party.”

On Sunday, he said in a public gathering that he would forgive the disgruntled lawmakers if they returned to the party. “We all make mistakes—when Allah forgives mistakes than how cannot I forgive them,” he said in Dargai, Malakand.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted on Sunday that disgruntled lawmakers were asked to explain their position in a week; otherwise, proceedings for their lifetime disqualification from NA would start. New candidates would be nominated for MNAs who would be disqualified on reserved seats, he added.

The story was originally published in Business Recorder on March 21, 2022.