After the election results in Pakistan, the exercise to form the government has started. On one hand, Nawaz Sharif’s party is preparing to make Shehbaz Sharif the Prime Minister again after reaching an agreement with other parties.
At the same time, the number of independent candidates supported by jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is high in Parliament. There is talk of PTI making Omar Ayub a contender for the post of Prime Minister.
Omar Ayub is the grandson of former President of Pakistan Ayub Khan. It is noteworthy that in the elections held on February 8 in Pakistan, there was a fractured mandate and there were allegations of rigging in the elections.
About Omar Ayub
Omar Ayub is the grandson of former President of Pakistan and Field Marshal Ayub Khan. He joined Pakistan Muslim League (Q) along with his father Gauhar Ayub Khan before the 2002 general elections.
In the same year, he contested the National Assembly elections and held the post of Minister of State for Finance in Shaukat Aziz’s cabinet. During his tenure, he brought many projects of natural gas, electricity and roads.
Joined PTI in 2018
Despite facing defeat against PML-N’s Sardar Mushtaq Khan in 2008, Omar Ayub returned to the assembly for a brief period in 2015.
Then the Pakistani Supreme Court had ordered re-election in his constituency. Later, due to his mother’s illness, he stayed away from the elections.
In February 2018, Ayub joined PTI along with Imran Khan. He successfully secured re-election to the National Assembly from NA-17 (Haripur) constituency as a PTI candidate in the 2018 general elections. Subsequently, he was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Such is Shahbaz’s plan
According to the Election Commission of Pakistan, the total number of seats won by six parties – PML-N, PPP, MQM-P, PML-Q, IPP (Istiqam-e-Pakistan Party) and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) is 152. All of them have announced their plans to form a coalition government under the leadership of Shehbaz Sharif.
It is clearly visible that after getting additional 60 women and 10 minority seats, these parties will easily achieve the required figure of 169 to form the government at the Centre. PML-N is believed to have the support of the army.