Pakistan: Imran Khan picks Omar Ayub as PM nominee

Imran Khan, the imprisoned former prime minister of Pakistan, has selected one of his party’s leaders as a candidate for prime minister.

Omar Ayub Khan has been chosen to compete against the candidate put forward by Imran Khan’s opponents, who have formed a coalition.

In a surprising turn of events, independent candidates supported by Khan won the most seats in the recent election, but fell short of enough seats to establish a government.

This prompted days of negotiations as the constitution mandates the formation of a government by February 29th.

Following a meeting with the former prime minister in prison, Asad Qaiser, a senior leader of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, announced Omar Ayub as their nominee for prime minister.

The members of Pakistan’s National Assembly will vote to elect the new speaker, and 56-year-old Ayub will compete against the nominee from Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), who recently formed an alliance.

Although Omar Ayub faces criminal charges, including those related to riots following Imran Khan’s arrest last year, this does not disqualify him from running for the position of prime minister.

If elected PM, Ayub said his top priority is to free political prisoners.