PTI names Ayub Khan’s grandson PM candidate

Islamabad, February 15

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), led by jailed

ex-PM Imran Khan, on Thursday nominated generay secretary Umar Ayub Khan, grandson of former military dictator Ayub Khan, as its PM candidate.

Besides, the party gave a call for nationwide peaceful protests on Saturday against “rigging” in elections besides its marginalisation in the country’s politics, saying it would not allow the people’s mandate for it to be stolen by rivals parties. Two of the major political parties — the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — had on Tuesday stated they would form a coalition government after the February 8 inconclusive elections. Their move means that imran’s party will not be in power, despite independent candidates backed by it gaining the maximum number of seats in the National Assembly.

In a change of tactics, the PTI said it would hold countrywide protests over the weekend against the alleged rigging in elections while joining the national and provincial assemblies.

The party previously had opted to either boycott or walk out of the assemblies while launching protests but the new strategy showed that it wanted to build pressure from within parliament and also outside on the streets to press for its demand to rectify the results, which it says were rigged.

PTI senior leader Barrister Gohar Ali Khan told journalists after meeting Imran Khan in Adiala Jail that his party chief has given instructions to hold peaceful protests across the country.