ISLAMABAD: After getting a go-ahead from the incarcerated party founding chairman, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed (PTI) Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) on Saturday submitted the name of Omar Ayub Khan for opposition leader in National Assembly.
The nomination was formally submitted to the office of the National Assembly Speaker, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq by Malik Amir Dogar, who is the party’s chief whip in the house.
Sahibzada Hamid Raza, Ali Muhammad Khan, Riaz Fatiana, and Dr Nisar Jat, among other opposition members were also present on the occasion.
Omar picked as opposition leader in NA
The realisation that the formal process of appointing a leader of the opposition had not been completed struck the PTI-SIC coalition during the National Assembly session on Friday.
The revelation occurred when former National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser urged the incumbent NA Speaker, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, to give the floor to the leader of the opposition, as was the tradition during Qaiser’s tenure. Qaiser pointed out that the opposition leader should be given the floor whenever demanded, as per past practice.
Sadiq, in response, questioned who had declared Omar Ayub as the opposition leader, humorously suggesting that Omar Ayub had assumed the role on his own.
The speaker guided the PTI-SIC lawmakers, stating that they needed to follow the formal process, and only then would Omar Ayub officially become the opposition leader.
As a result, officials from the PTI-SIC coalition promptly submitted the required documents to the Speaker’s office, ensuring that the necessary procedural steps were taken to formalise Omar Ayub Khan’s candidacy for the slot of opposition leader in National Assembly.
This is pertinent to mention that the expectations of the hawkish chaps within the ranks of PTI were dashed to a crushing demise with the stunning elevation of the heir of the marital clan – Omar from the Ayub family of Haripur – as the most formidable opposing night watchman in the lower house of parliament.
The very nod to push the younger Ayub who is the grand offspring of the only ever five-starred field martial in the history of the country Gen Ayub Khan, was granted by none other than the person – Imran Khan – pulling the strings from behind the bars in silently loud echelons of Adiala correctional facility in the heart of Rawalpindi’s garrison city.
Ayub Khan, the grandfather of Omar Ayub had steered the country into the fearful corridors of martial law back in 1958 and ruled the country for 11 years with iron-hard palms, paving the way for the military dictators who ruled the country from time to time in a mushroomed manner.
So stuffing in a thoughtful mind, the notorious background of the military brat who was also the blue-eyed boy of Musharraf’s PML-Q and Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N, remaining members of their cabinets, his penetrations down the ranks and files of PTI was not an easy stride, the younger Ayub was put through unimpressive vibes in PTI before he was bestowed with ministerial slots when Imran Khan took over in 2018 as Prime Minister.
But, for Omar, the very real breakthrough embraced his luck on May 25, 2022, when Omar stood like an iron wall during a protest rally Khan had announced from Peshawar to Islamabad and shielded his leader from the brutal batons of notorious Punjab police, surviving the state-sponsored terrorism in all heroic spikes, earning a widely-engulfed place in the heart of his beloved leader Imran Khan.
There and then right at the spot, Khan issued a direction to be disseminated in all ranks and files of his foot soldiers that the army brat had passed the political litmus test of loyalty and was elevated as additional secretary general of the party.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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