ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) made a fresh request to the Speaker of the National Assembly to appoint Mehmood Khan Achakzai as leader of the opposition in the lower house of Parliament after the party said it had addressed objections raised by Ayaz Sadiq.
The National Assembly has been without an opposition leader since August 2025, when Omar Ayub was disqualified as a member of the National Assembly after being convicted in the May 9 case.
A few weeks later, jailed PTI leader Imran Khan nominated Achakzai for the post of opposition leader.
According to the rules, it is the president of the National Assembly who has the power to appoint the leader of the opposition.
Ayaz Sadiq, however, refused to entertain the PTI’s request, citing pending cases against Omar Ayub.
Now, in a latest development, senior PTI leader and Chief Whip Amir Dogar has written to President Ayaz Sadiq, confirming that the legal case before the Peshawar High Court on the disqualification of former opposition leader Omar Ayub had been withdrawn.
A copy of the letter dated December 31, 2025 available with The Express PAkGazette here on Thursday states that all legal impediments have been removed and therefore the leader of the opposition will be appointed without further delay.
Following this development, the opposition in the National Assembly formally requested the President to issue a notification confirming Achakzai’s appointment, emphasizing that all obstacles had now been removed.
The letter responds to a previous communication from the presidency, dated December 29, which linked the opposition leader’s statement to the ongoing judicial process.
This was the fourth letter exchanged between President Sadiq and Dogar on the issue, with the former maintaining that the matter remained “sub judice”.
According to a statement from the Secretariat of the National Assembly, previous letters on this topic were sent on November 19, December 5 and December 19, 2025.
The post of opposition leader fell vacant in August 2025 when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disqualified then opposition leader Omar Ayub following his conviction in cases related to the May 9 riots.
Imran Khan subsequently nominated Achakzai as a candidate and the PTI formally requested his appointment in October 2025.
When Achakzai was nominated by the opposition, former NA opposition leader Omar Ayub Khan filed legal petitions before the court challenging his disqualification and related procedural issues.
These cases were pending before the court and were cited by the president’s office as a reason for not issuing the formal notification for Achakzai’s appointment.
The Speaker of the National Assembly repeatedly told opposition delegations that the matter was sub judice and he could therefore not finalize the appointment.
Now, head of government Amir Dogar’s letter effectively shifts responsibility back to the Speaker’s office, as the opposition maintains that all procedural and legal requirements for notification have been met.
Achakzai, chief of the Pakhtoonkhwa Mili Awami Party, is also head of the grand opposition alliance, which has been tasked with initiating talks with the government.
