INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A key aide of former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan said on Thursday that the jailed leader had nominated Omar Ayub Khan as a candidate
in a parliamentary vote to elect a new premier following last week&s national elections.The party also announced countrywide protests
against what it called widespread rigging against it in the polls
The election commission has denied such accusations and said legal forums would address any specific concerns, Reuters reported.The polls
did not return a clear majority for anyone, but independent candidates backed by Khan won 92 out of 264 seats making them the largest group
Khan ruled out alliances with the three largest parties, which means his candidate currently lacks the numbers to form government.&Omar Ayub
will be our candidate for the prime minister election, he has been nominated by Imran Khan& Asad Qaiser, a senior leader of Khan&s Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party told journalists after meeting the former premier in prison.Qaiser said PTI would reach out to other parties to
discuss supporting Ayub&s candidature
Khan&s opponents have already announced an alliance to form a minority government.Khan&s supporters ran as independents because they were
barred by the election commission on technical grounds from contesting the polls under his party&s electoral symbol.Despite the ban and
Khan&s imprisonment for convictions on charges ranging from leaking state secrets to corruption, millions of the former cricketer&s
supporters came out to vote for him, even though he cannot be part of any government while he remains in prison.Ayub is currently in hiding,
and is wanted in various investigations by law enforcement, including charges of being a part of rioting that followed Imran Khan&s
arrest.He contested and won a seat in the election despite his absence from the campaign
He had previously been a member of the party of Khan&s main rival Nawaz Sharif as well as the ruling party of former military ruler General
Pervez Musharraf.Ayub is the grandson of Pakistan&s first military dictator Ayub Khan who ruled Pakistan from 1958 to 1969.COUNTRYWIDE
PROTESTSKhan and his party say that the election results were rigged against their candidates, who should have won even more seats
They have challenged a number of results before the election commission.The party also called on its supporters to take part in nationwide
protests against the alleged rigging on Saturday
PTI&s interim chief, Gohar Ali Khan, said he was inviting other parties that also believed the polls were unfair to join the protest.PTI
supporters have already been protesting in various parts of the country, including the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and southwestern
Balochistan, where a number of roads and highways were blocked by protesters.Questions have been raised about the fairness of last week&s
election, both inside Pakistan as well as major foreign capitals.The post Ex-Pakistan premier Imran Khan nominates Omar Ayub as PM
candidate: aide first appeared on Ariana News.
