PTI names Omar Ayub for PM, Mian Aslam for Punjab CM

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR/LAHORE: PTI senior leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan Thursday said Omar Ayub Khan would be the party’s candidate for the office of prime minister and Mian Aslam Iqbal for the slot of Punjab chief minister.

Talking to media persons here after detailed consultations with the party’s founding chairman Imran Khan in the Adiala Jail, Gohar said the party was confident of Omar Ayub’s election as prime minister and that he would stay until Imran was released.

He said a political party (PTI) that was in all the provinces and had a two-thirds majority in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab was being limited and a party having zero credibility and barely 20 seats was being given power. The people will not accept such a mandate.

“It was also said that we have been offered to form government with PPP, PMLN or MQM whereas we have announced as per the instructions of Khan Sahib we will not share power with any of them. We have not had talks with PPP, as we have one-point agenda that we do public politics instead of power sharing,” said Gohar. “Khan Sahib’s message was that the politics of PTI was not for power sharing but for people. Others took care of their interests by doing politics in the name of people but the PTI was working to protect the rights of people by doing politics for people and believed in mandate, democracy and rule of law.

“No one believes in power sharing with them (rivals). We are in a position to form government soon in the Centre, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and have requested judiciary and Election Commission to decide on 70 constituencies as soon as possible,” he noted.

Announcing the names for chief ministers’ slots, Gohar said, “Our chief ministerial candidate in Punjab will be Mian Aslam and Salar Sahib will be our chief ministerial candidate in Balochistan.” Likewise, he added, only the speaker has been decided in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where Imran Khan has nominated Aqibullah for the speaker’s slot.

Gohar said his party had announced a peaceful protest against the alleged rigging and invited all parties, including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Jamaat-e-Islami and GDA, to participate in it on Saturday.

Speaking on the occasion, PTI leader Sher Afzal Marwat said, “We have placed the whole situation before Imran Khan and Khan Sahib is clear that we cannot share power with PMLN and PPP under any circumstances.”

He said the PTI will show Form-45 of all the party-backed candidates who had been robbed of their win and Salman Akram Raja will give a presentation in this connection to the local and international media at a local hotel.

Separately, senior party leader Asad Qaiser also had a chat with reporters outside the jail along with Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif.

Asad alleged that the February 8 elections were the worst elections that had no credibility and no one was ready to accept them. He charged that his party’s mandate had been stolen against which a protest would be held across the country and he would try to talk to different parties in this connection.

Barrister Saif said Asad’s brother Aqibullah, who was elected on a provincial seat of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa from Swabi, was nominated by Imran for the slot of speaker.

He said there was a message from the party’s founder for the United States to make up for its past mistakes and play its role for democracy. “The US has always sided with dictators and supported corrupt people. It is time for them to put more stress in their statement on recent elections in Pakistan,” Saif quoted Imran as saying.

Meanwhile, Balochistan Caretaker Information Minister Jan Achakzai Thursday alleged that PTI was trying to make the Feb 8 general elections controversial.

Achakzai said there was no such person as Salar in the assembly. He added that Salar’s nomination testified to the PTI’s lack of knowledge.

Contrary to Achakzai’s claim, Salar Kakar said the PTI founder chairman Imran Khan trusted him and nominated him for consultations with regard to the election of chief minister. “We had won five seats in the provincial assembly but we were declared losers. We are now moving court and will Insha Allah triumph,” Salar said.

In a related development, the Awami National Party (ANP) Thursday declined the PTI’s offer for talks and said it had already announced a protest against the ‘rigging’ in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

In a statement, ANP Secretary General Mian Iftikhar Hussain said PTI leader Asad Qaiser had contacted them for talks on the political situation in the country but his party declined the offer on the ground that the majority of PTI-backed candidates were elected through rigging while candidates of ANP and other political parties were defeated under a pre-planned conspiracy.

“The ANP understands that as a political entity, negotiations with PTI would not be favourable at this time, as the party has already announced a protest movement against rigging and change of results in February 8 polls,” the statement quoted the ANP leader as saying.