Omar Ayub to be NA Opp leader

The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) on Saturday decided to make PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.

Earlier in the day, the SIC had fielded Ayub as its candidate for the post of the premier against PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, but lacking the required number of votes, it suffered a defeat.

In the contest, Ayub managed to receive only 92 votes against 201 bagged by Shehbaz, who was elected the premier for the second time.

In his speech in the NA after the new premier was elected, Ayub declared the elections for the slots of the prime minister, speaker and his deputy as “illegal”.

He also complained about not being allotted the reserved seats, which they deserved.

Ayub said they had raised the constitutional point that the House was incomplete but it was “bulldozed” by former NA speaker Raja Pervez Ashraf.

Ayub is the general secretary of the PTI but his party members won by contesting the general polls as independent candidates after not receiving an electoral symbol.

Later, they joined the SIC as part of their strategy to obtain their quota of reserved seats in the legislatures.

However, the SIC had neither applied for any reserved seat to the ECP -- a requirement under the law -- nor had it filed a priority list of candidates before the elections.