Incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan has nominated Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai for the post of Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, PTI Secretary-General Salman Akram Raja said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAzam Khan Swati has been nominated as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate,\u201d Raja added. He also said Imran has asked for five names to decide on his nominee for the opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes after the Election Commission of Pakistan earlier this month disqualified PTI\u2019s Omar Ayub Khan as the NA opposition leader and Shibli Faraz from the same role in the Senate, along with other opposition MNAs and MPAs, following their convictions in May 9 cases. Both PTI opposition leaders were formally removed from their posts on August 8.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters outside the Supreme Court, Raja said that Imran had nominated Achakzai, who currently leads the Tehreek-i-Tahaffuz Ayeen-i-Pakistan (TTAP), to take Ayub\u2019s place.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe PTI founder has entrusted the matter of by-elections [to seats vacated after recent convictions of lawmakers in May 9 cases] to the party\u2019s political committee,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA political committee meeting will be held later today, where a decision will be made in this regard.\u201d<\/p>\n
PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja speaks to reporters outside the Supreme Court in Islamabad on August 20. \u2014 DawnNewsTV
\n\u2018We need to fight this war\u2019
\nIn a separate address in Lahore, Raja highlighted that the people need to come together and stand up against oppression, adding that they need to fight for their rights as enshrined in the Constitution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter where you\u2019re from or what party you belong to; if you have empathy, we are all together,\u201d he said. \u201cFor the permanence of humanity and dignity, we need to fight this war.\u201d<\/p>\n
The PTI general secretary highlighted that anyone can be detained for any reason, warning that nobody has freedom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is only one law in this country, its name is fear,\u201d he emphasised.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will take your struggle to every stage we can,\u201d Raja said, indirectly addressing party supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all part of one big struggle for human rights. What does the supremacy of law and the Constitution mean? It means having the right to stand up and protest, as in Article 17. Article 15 allows free movement. Article 19 says we can raise and spread our voice together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to fight for the farmers and the downtrodden,\u201d he added. \u201cI listened to people in Sindh, it brought tears to my eyes, but this is not only in Sindh, it is commonplace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Raja emphasised that \u201cwe all have rights and we are all human\u201d, adding that the people need to stand up for a common agenda.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can see in these floods, they are not purely natural disasters: there is a human hand and greed involved,\u201d Raja declared. \u201cWe need to eradicate this greed in the same way as our forests are being cut down. If we do not stand up, we will not be able to raise our voices again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, the Peshawar High Court had issued a stay order for the appointments of new opposition leaders in the NA and the Senate. The bench also issued notices to the ECP, seeking its response to two separate petitions filed by Ayub and Faraz. The petitions challenged their disqualification and de-notification as MNA and Senator, respectively.<\/p>\n
The PTI is a part of a coalition of six opposition parties, working under the banner of TTAP, which was formed last year.<\/p>\n
Earlier this month, the opposition alliance had organised a multi-party conference, following which it had appealed for a new social contract to restore the Constitution and democracy.<\/p>\n
The TTAP formalised its organisational structure in July, declaring blanket support for all anti-government protests. During a press conference, Raja had announced Achakzai\u2019s appointment as TTAP chairman, with PTI\u2019s Asad Qaiser as the Secretary General.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Incarcerated PTI founder Imran Khan has nominated Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party Chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai for the post of Opposition Leader in the National Assembly, PTI Secretary-General Salman Akram Raja said on Wednesday. \u201cAzam Khan Swati has been nominated as Leader of the Opposition in the Senate,\u201d Raja added. He also said Imran has asked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11541,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11542,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11540\/revisions\/11542"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/weeklyyoung.pk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}