Jailed cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has named a
man in hiding as his pick for Pakistan's prime minister.
Omar Ayub Khan will run against the candidate of Imran
Khan's rivals.
Mr Ayub, one of the former prime minister's party leaders,
is currently wanted by police on criminal charges. That does not bar him from
running.
However, despite Mr Khan's independents unexpectedly winning
the most seats in last week's election, they do not have enough to form a
government.
Currently, the two main rivals appear on course to take
control, after they formed a coalition - Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim
League-N (PML-N) and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari's Pakistan People's Party (PPP).
A senior leader of Mr Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI)
party, Asad Qaiser, announced Mr Ayub as his pick for PM after meeting with the
former premier in prison.
Members of Pakistan's National Assembly will elect the new
prime minister and 56-year-old Mr Ayub will face off against the PML-N's
Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif's brother.
Mr Ayub is on the run from criminal charges over riots
sparked by Imran Khan's arrest in May last year. But that does not disqualify
him from seeking the PM post.
If elected PM, Mr Ayub said his top priority is to free
political prisoners. He won last week as an independent backed by PTI.
He is the grandson of Mohamed Ayub Khan, a military dictator
and Pakistan's president from 1958 to 1969.
What now in Pakistan after Khan vote surprise?
With the PPP's support, Mr Sharif on Wednesday put forward
his brother Shehbaz as the PML-N's PM candidate.
The vote for Pakistan's next prime minister will take place
after all new members of the National Assembly take their oaths, and the
speaker and deputy speaker have been elected.
Independent candidates - a majority affiliated with Khan's
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) - won 93 of the 265 National Assembly seats that
were contested in last Thursday's election. The PML-N won 75 seats while the
PPP came third with 54 seats.
Against the odds, election shows Imran Khan's support is
solid
Who is really pulling the strings in a divided Pakistan?
The PTI argues that its allies should have won even more
votes and seats, alleging vote fraud and interference - which electoral
officials have denied.
Earlier this week, a politician from the Jamaat-e-Islami
party gave up his seat because he says the vote was rigged in his favour.
"We will not allow our mandate to be stolen," Mr
Ayub said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
"PTI as a party will work for strengthening democratic
institutions in Pakistan so that the country's economy can be put on a path of
positive trajectory and we can initiate our reforms programme to benefit the
people of Pakistan," he said.
Mr Ayub was first elected into the nation's National
Assembly in 2002 as a candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, a breakaway
party from the PML-N.
He joined PML-N in 2012, and then moved again in 2018 to
join PTI. He was a minister in Khan's cabinet from 2018 until the ex-PM's
ouster in April 2022. He was appointed PTI's secretary-general since 27 May
2003, shortly after Khan's arrest.
