Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah on Tuesday urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) and National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to “take notice” of a new audio leak purportedly featuring PML-Q MNAs Hussain Elahi and Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain, where the duo could be heard talking about abducting a lawmaker.
The audio, slightly longer than a minute, started making the rounds on social media on Monday night. In the clip, Hussain and Wajahat are allegedly strategising on a possible “vote of confidence” in the NA.
The PTI has hinted at returning to parliament to ensure that “turncoats” do not help Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif get a vote of confidence that the party was planning to “test” the premier with.
Reacting to the leak today, the interior minister said that planning the abduction of a woman was condemnable.
He stated that PTI chairman Imran Khan and his intent to “buy the conscience” of PML-Q and PML-N lawmakers had been “exposed before the public”.
“Which court will give justice to party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and MNA Farah Khan? CJ should take note of the audio and this trade of conscience,” Sanaullah tweeted, adding that the NA speaker should do the same.
The audio
At the beginning of the audio, a man believed to be Hussain can be heard saying: “The vote of confidence […] in it, our vote won’t come on either side.
“They have to complete the number of 186 […] no they have to complete 172 in the National Assembly.”
The man goes on to say that “the parliamentary leader right now is Moonis Elahi […] but he has three and we are two”.
Here, the other voice, believed to be of Wajahat, proposes that a “woman can be abducted”.
“Yes […] if a woman is bribed that she disappears then something can happen,” Hussain allegedly says, adding that he would suggest Moonis send the woman on “vacations”.
“I’ll give the idea to Moonis bhai,” he says. At that, the person on the other side says: “It will just take 10 minutes to abduct the woman.”
The name of the woman is not mentioned by both Hussain or Shujaat contrary to what Sanaullah said.
Dawn.com was unable to independently verify the audio.
A series of audio recordings have surfaced of late, allegedly featuring the leadership of the PTI and PML-N holding informal conversations never meant to be heard by the public.
Some of the clips featured purported conversations between the PTI chief and his former ministers and principal secretary about a cipher that he has for long presented as evidence of a “foreign conspiracy” to oust him from office.
In October, an alleged audio of Imran was leaked to social media, featuring the PTI chief talking about the cipher with party leaders Shireen Mazari and Asad Umar.
The audio — slightly longer than a minute — was the second that was released in a day featuring the PTI chairman. In the clip, the trio were discussing the cipher and allegedly strategising on how to “play it up in the public”.
Earlier in the same day, an audio recording had surfaced featuring a voice — sounding like Imran’s — discussing “buying five” and “numbers game”.