Pakistan: Imran Khan picks Omar Ayub as PM nominee

BBC News:

Jailed cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has named a man in hiding as his pick for Pakistan’s prime minister.

Omar Ayub Khan will run against the candidate of Imran Khan’s rivals.

Mr Ayub, one of the former prime minister’s party leaders, is currently wanted by police on criminal charges. That does not bar him from running.

However, despite Mr Khan’s independents unexpectedly winning the most seats in last week’s election, they do not have enough to form a government.

Currently, the two main rivals appear on course to take control, after they formed a coalition – Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

A senior leader of Mr Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, Asad Qaiser, announced Mr Ayub as his pick for PM after meeting with the former premier in prison.

Members of Pakistan’s National Assembly will elect the new prime minister and 56-year-old Mr Ayub will face off against the PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif’s brother.

Mr Ayub is on the run from criminal charges over riots sparked by Imran Khan’s arrest in May last year. But that does not disqualify him from seeking the PM post.

If elected PM, Mr Ayub said his top priority is to free political prisoners. He won last week as an independent backed by PTI.

He is the grandson of Mohamed Ayub Khan, a military dictator and Pakistan’s president from 1958 to 1969.