Lawmakers on reserved seats should be jailed for abandoning their party, says Imran Khan

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan on Sunday lashed out at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) dissident lawmakers who refused to support him in during the no-confidence vote last month, saying legislators who jumped ship after getting elected on reserved seats should be “jailed for life.”
The National Assembly of Pakistan has a total of 342 members, including 60 seats reserved for women and 10 for non-Muslims. These reserved seats are allocated to political parties as per their proportional representation in the lower house of parliament.
Khan lost the crucial no-confidence vote in the National Assembly after more than a dozen PTI dissident lawmakers along with his coalition partners refused to support him.
Addressing a meeting of PTI’s Punjab lawmakers on Sunday, Khan severely criticized his party’s members who, despite getting elected on reserved seats for his party, joined hands with the opposition to oust him.
“One who has a constituency can argue that the PTI was unpopular in his area and therefore he had to abandon ship,” he said, according to Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper.
“That is still understandable [but] how can someone go [to the other side] on a reserved seat? They have clearly sold their conscience. They should be ashamed … they should be sent straight to jail,” he added.
Khan said the dissident lawmakers who had abandoned the PTI in its hour of need after making tall claims of being loyal, would regret their decision.
“People will remind their children about what they have done,” he said.
The former prime minister will address a political gathering in Pakistan’s Abbottabad city later in the evening. Khan has rejected the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and has demanded fresh elections.
He has vowed to march with thousands of PTI supporters to Islamabad later this month to mount pressure on the government to hold early elections.