ISLAMABAD: Former chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Barrister Gohar Ali Khan on Thursday said that founding party chairman Imran Khan nominated Omar Ayub Khan as the candidate for the coveted slot of prime minister while Mian Aslam Iqbal was picked for Punjab chief minister.
After holding a meeting with incarcerated PTI founding chairman Imran in Adiala Jail along with other senior party leaders, he said the names had been finalised by the former prime minister as he had already declared Ali Amin Gandapur as new chief minister for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Gohar said Imran had nominated PTI central secretary general Omar Ayub Khan — who is in hiding after facing over 20 criminal charges following the May 9 riots — as the candidate for prime minister.
PTI chairman says his party will form govts in Centre, KP and Punjab
Meanwhile, Mian Aslam Iqbal and Salaar Kakar were nominated for the slots of Punjab and Balochistan chief ministers, respectively. Gohar said Aqibullah Khan — the younger brother of PTI leader Asad Qaiser — was picked for the position of the speaker of the KP Assembly.
He said the PTI’s nominations for the National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker would be announced in the upcoming days.
He said PTI would not engage in power-sharing with Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
“Imran Khan has clearly said that the politics of PTI is not for power-sharing but for the welfare of the masses and there will be no compromise on this,” he added.
“The PTI is doing politics for the protection of the masses’ rights and believes in the supremacy of their mandate and democracy…therefore, we don’t believe in any power-sharing,” he added. He vowed to play the role of a strong opposition until the party’s stolen mandate is returned, but he did add that the party is in a position to form governments in Punjab, KP, and Centre. He also said the party would hold peaceful protest across the country on Saturday (February 17) against the marginalisation of PTI, claiming that the party had won a clear mandate but it was being snatched.
Barrister Gohar invited all other political parties that were protesting the February 8 election results — specifically naming the Pir Pagara-led Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), Jamaat-e-Islami, Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, and Awami National Party (ANP) — to join the PTI.
He added that the PTI would record a peaceful protest on Saturday afternoon and requested the public to participate in it.
“These elections were very critical […] and we won’t let our mandate be stolen at all costs as we know how to snatch out mandate,” he maintained.
To a question, he refuted reports regarding talks with the PPP and a coalition with the PTI-Parliamentarians, saying talks with them are simply out of question. He called upon the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the judiciary to fix petitions filed by the party against massive rigging in several constituencies, saying that a delay in this regard would affect the larger mandate.
Earlier in the day, former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser said Imran had given him an assignment to engage with all political parties protesting the election results, specifically mentioning Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s JUI-F, the ANP, and Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao-led Qaumi Wattan Party (QWP). “We want to form a strategy together because these were the worst elections in the history of Pakistan,” the PTI leader said outside Adiala Jail.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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