Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said on Monday that at least 17 lawmakers had agreed to vote against Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in the March 3 Senate election and Prime Minister Imran Khan was aware of their names.

“If Imran Khan knows it then I also know it,” Rasheed told SAMAA TV’s Nadeem Malik, when asked if he knew the names of the lawmakers. “I have seen the list in a file but didn’t open it.”

On March 3, Pakistan Democratic Movement’s Yousaf Raza Gillani defeated PTI’s Shaikh by five votes.

PM Imran Khan has accused opposition parties of buying votes of their lawmakers. The interior Minister said its “credit” should be given to former president Asif Ali Zardari.

“Votes were sold and the credit for buying and selling [of votes] goes to Asif Ali Zardari,” Rasheed said.

The interior minister said according to his tally, the opposition had managed to “break” 17 votes of the ruling party and its allies. Some 12 or 13 lawmakers agreed to take money and took an “advance” payment, he claimed.

On the civil-military front, the minister didn’t believe there was a trust deficit between PM Khan and the establishment.

“There is no [trust] deficit,” he said. “The institutions and the army are standing by Imran Khan’s elected government.”

He said that Abdul Hafeez Shaikh would continue to work as the finance minister.

“He will continue as a federal minister [for] finance,” Rasheed said. “There is a strategy but it’s not for TV.”