Despite the suppression of his get together, downed cell phone networks on Election Day, and lethal election-related violence, Pakistan’s 130 million voters delivered the embattled former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his allies a convincing victory on the polls final week.
Learn Extra: Pakistan’s Army Used Each Trick to Sideline Imran Khan—and Failed. Now What?
This week, Khan, who was ousted in 2022 and now sits in jail on a bevy of legal convictions—which, he maintains, are politically motivated—has made clear who he wish to see turn out to be the nation’s subsequent Prime Minister: Omar Ayub Khan. The endorsement was introduced Thursday by a senior member of Khan’s get together who met with the imprisoned former chief.
The 56-year-old former finance minister wrote on X that he was “actually humbled” by the nomination. “PTI as a celebration will work for strengthening democratic establishments in Pakistan in order that the nation’s financial system may be placed on a path of constructive trajectory and we will provoke our reforms programme to profit the individuals of Pakistan,” he stated. “We won’t enable our mandate to be stolen.”
Whereas candidates backed by Khan—most registered as independents, together with Ayub, due to strikes made by the Electoral Fee to hamstring Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) get together—managed to win essentially the most seats in final week’s election, they don’t have a majority alone to type a authorities. Coalition negotiations are underway earlier than the elected lawmakers convene for a Nationwide Meeting session on Feb. 29.
As Prime Minister nominee, Ayub will face off in opposition to former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who leads a rival coalition consisting of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Social gathering and is believed to be the popular candidate of Pakistan’s highly effective army institution.
Right here’s what to find out about Ayub, who, if Khan’s in style motion continues to defy the chances, may turn out to be the nation’s subsequent chief.
He faces a number of legal expenses and is in hiding
In accordance with native media stories, there are 21 circumstances filed in opposition to Ayub, together with some linked to huge protests that broke out after the arrest of Khan final Might. The costs are seen as a part of a wider try to prosecute Khan—who himself faces over 180 legal expenses—and his associates to decrease the affect of PTI and enhance the ability of the army institution.
Ayub went into hiding when police began arresting PTI figures and their contacts—together with these linked to Ayub, similar to his private secretary and enterprise associates—within the wake of violent protests final Might.
Moreover the costs which might be being levied in opposition to him, Ayub has additionally confronted different types of intimidation from authorities, together with being crushed by police in 2022 throughout a PTI demonstration and having his home raided final Might.
Regardless of his legal expenses, Ayub remains to be eligible to run for premiership.
Ayub, who was appointed as PTI’s common secretary final yr, stated that his focus if he turns into Prime Minister could be to free political prisoners.
“Our first precedence as a bunch might be to have Prime Minister Imran Khan sahib, Vice Chairman Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureishi sahib, President Chaudhry Pervez Ellahi sahib and all our ladies and men political prisoners launched from Jail instantly,” Ayub wrote on X this week.
He’s the grandson of Pakistan’s first army dictator
Ayub’s late grandfather, former army officer Muhammad Ayub Khan, dominated Pakistan with an iron fist from 1958 to 1969 as self-appointed President below martial legislation. Whereas his turbulent presidency—which included not less than one assassination try and months of lethal riots—has been lauded for precipitating regular financial development within the nation, it additionally sparked public anger over hovering tensions with neighboring India and crackdowns on political freedom. The chief stepped down in 1969 amid rising dissent.
Ayub’s father, Gohar Ayub Khan, who died in November, was additionally outstanding in Pakistan’s political historical past. He was a retired military officer and politician who within the Nineteen Nineties held posts because the speaker of the Nationwide Meeting, overseas affairs minister, and minister for water and energy.
He has over twenty years of expertise in politics
Ayub’s political profession began in 2002, when he was elected to the Nationwide Meeting as a candidate of the conservative Pakistan Muslim League (Q). He served because the Minister of State for Finance between 2004 and 2007 however misplaced his seat within the Nationwide Meeting within the 2008 election. Re-elected to the Nationwide Meeting in 2014, he left his seat in 2015 after the Supreme Courtroom dominated in favor of a petition by his opponent, PTI candidate Raja Aamir Zaman, that claimed the election was rigged.
In 2018, after he was once more elected into the Nationwide Meeting, this time as a PTI candidate, he was appointed power minister in Imran Khan’s cupboard, and he later took on the extra function of petroleum minister in 2019. Throughout a cupboard reshuffle in 2021, Ayub was appointed finance minister, a task that he relinquished one yr later amid mass resignations of lawmakers loyal to an ousted Khan.
He was educated within the U.S.
Ayub obtained his bachelor’s and grasp’s levels in enterprise administration from the George Washington College in Washington, D.C., in 1993 and 1996, based on a biography by the Pakistan Board of Funding that additionally described Ayub as an “eminent determine” of Pakistan’s political enviornment “recognized for his oratory, financial and administration abilities.”
Imran Khan has lengthy been a vocal critic of the U.S., which he beforehand blamed for his 2022 ouster—although he has since adopted a softer diplomatic strategy. In the meantime, Ayub’s stance on the U.S. is unclear, although as power minister in 2021 he courted stronger bilateral ties and U.S. funding in Pakistan’s power sector.