ISLAMABAD: Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s PTI and the Sunni Ittehad Council have jointly nominated his party leader Omar Ayub Khan as the leader of the opposition in Pakistan’s National Assembly. The PTI-SIC formalised the nomination by submitting his documents to the office of National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Saturday, the Dawn newspaper said on Sunday.
Incidentally, Omar Ayub Khan was also the joint candidate who lost to Imran Khan‘s rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party’s Shehbaz Sharif in the prime ministerial election last week.
About 90 candidates of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) joined the SIC after winning in the February 8 general elections as independent candidates to secure reserved seats.
The nomination papers were submitted by Malik Amir Dogar in the presence of SIC supremo Sahib­zada Hamid Raza, and members of the national assembly (MNAs) Ali Mohammad Khan, Riaz Fatyana, Dr Nisar Ahmad Jatt and others, the newspaper said.
Achakzai was the PTI-SIC’s candidate against Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) candidate Asif Ali Zardari, who was on Saturday elected as the president. He took the oath on Sunday.
Responding to a question, Dr Jatt expressed the hope that Ayub would become the opposition leader in the NA through nomination, instead of election, on March 13 or 14.
The leader of the opposition enjoys the status of a federal minister. He gets a separate office, where usually opposition parties hold meetings.
The Public Accounts Committee is usually headed by the leader of the opposition.