ISLAMABAD:
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) made a fresh request to the National Assembly Speaker to appoint Mehmood Khan Achakzai as the Leader of the Opposition in the lower house of parliament after the party said it was addressing 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 case on 9 May.
A few weeks later, jailed PTI leader Imran Khan nominated Achakzai for the post of opposition leader.
According to the rules, it is the speaker of the National Assembly who has the power to appoint the leader of the opposition.
However, Ayaz Sadiq refused to entertain PTI requests citing pending cases against Omar Ayub.
Now, in a latest development, PTI’s senior leader and Chief Whip Amir Dogar wrote to Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and confirmed that the legal case before the Peshawar High Court regarding the disqualification of former opposition leader Omar Ayub had been withdrawn.
A copy of the letter dated December 31, 2025, available with The Express Pakinomist here on Thursday, says that all legal hurdles were removed and hence the Leader of the Opposition was appointed without further delay.
Following this development, the opposition in the National Assembly formally requested the Speaker to issue a proclamation confirming Achakzai’s appointment, stressing that all obstacles had now been removed.
The letter came in response to an earlier announcement from the speaker’s office, dated December 29, that linked the opposition leader’s statement to the ongoing trial.
This was the fourth letter exchanged between Speaker Sadiq and Dogar on the issue, with the former claiming that the matter remained “sub judice”.
According to a statement from the Secretariat of the National Assembly, previous letters on this subject were sent on 19 November, 5 December and 19 December 2025.
The position of Leader of the Opposition became 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 9 May riots.
Subsequently, Imran khan nominated Achakzai as the candidate and 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 in the court challenging his disqualification and related procedural aspects.
These cases were pending before the court and were cited by the speaker’s office as a reason for not issuing the formal notification of Achakzai’s appointment.
The Speaker of the National Assembly repeatedly told the opposition delegations that the case was sub judice and that he could not therefore finalize the appointment.
Now Chief Whip 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 the leader of the grand opposition alliance tasked with opening talks with the government.
