Omar Ayub Khan notified as opposition leader in National Assembly

ISLAMABAD, April 02 (SABAH): National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq on Tuesday notified senior Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Omar Ayub Khan as the leader of the opposition in the lower house of Parliament.

According to a press release issued by the Assembly Secretariat, the development came as members of the opposition — including PTI’s Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Malik Muhammad Amir Dogar and Omar Ayub Ayub himself — met Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.

The statement said that the nomination of the leader of the opposition was discussed during the meeting, adding that Ayub’s name was submitted.

Subsequently, Sadiq declared Ayub leader of the opposition after the completion of the scrutiny process under Rule 39 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the NA.

The statement added that the deadline to submit nomination papers for the slot was till 6:00 PM on Monday. No other candidates’ nomination papers had been received by the stipulated time, it said.

A notification was also released by the NA Secretariat stating that Ayub had been declared the opposition leader with effect from April 2.

On March 9, the PTI-Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) alliance had formally nominated Ayub for the leader of the opposition by submitting his documents to the office of the speaker.

It should be noted that while most of the PTI-backed winning independent candidates of national and provincial assemblies had submitted affidavits to the Election Commission of Pakistan to officially join the SIC in February, Ayub and Gohar had not done so due to their plans to contest PTI intra-party polls. Gohar and Ayub were later elected unopposed as the chairman and secretary general of the party, respectively.