Imran Khan nominates opposition leaders for National Assembly, Senate

Islamabad, Aug 20 (PTI) Pakistan’s incarcerated former premier Imran Khan has nominated ethnic Pashtun politician Mahmood Khan Achakzai as opposition leader in the National Assembly and Azam Khan Swati as leader of the opposition in the Senate.

The key positions held by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders Omar Ayub Khan and Shibli Faraz fell vacant following their conviction late last month in a case related to the May 9, 2023 violence.

Khan, 72, is booked in several cases in Lahore in connection with the May 9 violence, including for allegedly inciting his supporters to attack government and military buildings.

PTI secretary general Salman Akram Raja told reporters outside the Supreme Court about the nomination of Achakzai and Swati. “These two have been nominated by Khan,” he said.

He also said that Khan asked for five names to decide the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, after Ahmad Khan Bhachar was convicted last month in a case related to the May 9 violence.

Achakzai is chief of his Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party, which is part of opposition alliance Tehreek-i-Tahaffuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP), also headed by him.

Khan also fielded him as presidential candidate of his party against the incumbent Asif Ali Zardari last year.

Unlike Achakzai, the nominee for the position of the leader of the opposition in the Senate, Swati, is a senior PTI politician who is considered close to Khan.

Khan, who was ousted from office in April 2022, has been in the high-security Adiala Jail, Rawalpindi, since August 2023 after being convicted in a corruption case. He faces multiple legal cases, most of them filed after his removal from power. PTI SH GSP GSP