The Ensaf Party called on its supporters to hold nationwide protests against what they see as fraud in the parliamentary elections (Anatolia)

A senior aide to the currently imprisoned former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Thursday that Khan had chosen Omar Ayub Khan to be his party's candidate in a parliamentary vote to choose the new prime minister after the general elections held last week.

The party also announced the organization of protests across the country against what it described as widespread fraud in the elections.

The Election Commission denied these accusations and said that legal bodies would look into any specific concerns.

No party obtained a clear majority in the elections, but independent candidates topped the results of the parliamentary elections by winning 101 seats. The PTI (led by Imran Khan) supported 93 of these independents, the League Party (Nawaz’s wing) won 75 seats, and the People’s Party 54. One seat, and the United Popular Movement Party 17 seats, and the League and the People's Parties alone can form a government with a simple parliamentary majority.

Independents cannot form a government despite obtaining the largest number of seats, as a recognized party or coalition of parties must form it.

The Muslim League and the People's Party announced an alliance between them to form the new government, which is supposed to be led by former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while the PTI refused to join this alliance and decided to challenge the results of the recent elections.

Khan rules out an alliance with the three major parties, which means that his candidate currently lacks the majority necessary to form a government.

Nominated by Omar Ayoub

For his part, the prominent leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Asad Qaiser, told reporters, after his meeting with the former prime minister who leads the party and is currently imprisoned, that “Omar Ayub will be our candidate for the position of prime minister. Imran Khan nominated him.”

He added that the party will communicate with other parties to discuss supporting Ayoub's candidacy.

Khan's supporters ran as independents instead of running under their party's symbol, because the Election Commission rejected their candidacy for procedural reasons, she says.

Although Khan was banned from running in the elections and was imprisoned on charges ranging from divulging state secrets to corruption, millions of his supporters came out to vote for him even though he could not hold any position in the government due to his imprisonment.

Ayub is currently in hiding and is wanted in multiple investigations. Among the charges against him are involvement in riots that occurred after Imran Khan’s arrest.

Ayoub ran for and won a seat in the elections despite his absence from the election campaign. He was previously a member of Nawaz Sharif's Muslim League, which is Khan's main rival.

Ayub is the grandson of Ayub Khan, Pakistan's first military ruler, who ruled the country from 1958 to 1969.

Khan and his party say that the election results were rigged and the party's candidates should have won more seats, and the party has appealed a number of results before the Election Commission.

The party also called on its supporters to participate in next Saturday's nationwide protests against the alleged fraud. PTI's interim president, Gohar Ali Khan, said he was calling on other parties that also believe the elections are unfair to join the protests.

Source: Agencies