Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan announced on Wednesday that the party was taking action against 20 lawmakers for "participating in horse trading" during the Senate elections last month.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, the PTI chief said that the party will give the accused a chance to explain before their names are forwarded to the National Accountability Bureau.

Khan claimed that PTI, by expelling nearly "30 per cent of its leaders", was "truly protecting the sanctity of the vote" and wondered if other political parties will follow suit.

The names of the PTI lawmakers who are suspected by the party leadership of "selling their votes" include:

PTI

Deena Naaz

Nargis Ali

Nagina Khan

Sardar Idrees

Obaid Mayar

Zahid Durrani

Fouzia Bibi

Naseem Hayat

Qurban Khan

Arif Yousaf

Amjid Afridi

Abdul Haq

Javed Naseem

Yasin Khalil

Faisal Zaman

Sami Alizayi

Joining from QWP

Meraj Hamayun

Awami Jamhoori Ittehad

Khatoon Bibi

Babar Saleem

Joining from PML-N

Wajihuz Zaman

"This is not the first time lawmakers have taken part in horse trading," Khan said. "This has been happening for the past 30 or 40 years."

The PTI chief said that the accused lawmakers had received as much as Rs40 million each and added that the party will issue a show-cause notice to them.

Khan lauded other members of his party who "resisted the temptation" to take large sums of money offered to them by other parties.

Last month, Dawn.com had learned that at least 17 PTI lawmakers in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa allegedly sold their votes during the Senate election enabling two PPP candidates to be elected to the Senate from the province where the PPP only has seven MPAs.

An initial investigation ordered by KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak into alleged horse-trading had revealed that at least 17 ─ and as many as 20 ─ PTI MPAs in KP had voted for candidates outside the party, sources in CM House Peshawar and Bani Gala had told DawnNewsTV.

Additional reporting by Fahad Chaudhry.