PTI Nominates Ackzai as Leader of The Opposition in the National Assembly For The Second Time

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has formally nominated veteran politician, Mehmood Khan Ackzai as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly at a time when the speaker of the National Assembly, Ayaz Sadiq has initiated the process of election of opposition leader in the lower house of the parliament.

The office of Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly has been lying vacant since the disqualification of former opposition leader, Omar Ayub Khan five months ago. It is unprecedented in the parliamentary history of the country that the office of leader of the opposition has remained vacant for so long.

Mehmood Khan Ackzai is the chief of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami party, which is closely allied with Imran Khan’s PTI.

Ackzai is a vehement proponent of parliamentary and constitutional supremacy and always side with the opposition no matter who is in the government.

He remained staunchly opposed to the Imran Khan government and at that time he was allied with Nawaz Sharif’s PMLN.

The written application for appointing Ackzai as leader of the opposition was submitted in Speaker’s chamber by PTI chief, Barrister Gohar Khan, “We, the undersigned members of the National Assembly belonging to the opposition benches, have the honour to nominate Mehmood Khan Achakzai MNA (NA-266) for appointment as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly of Pakistan.”

The written application referred to rule 39 of the Rules of Procedures of Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007, saying that the “leader of the opposition is to be appointed from among the members of the house who belong to the opposition and who commands the confidence of the majority of the members sitting on the opposition benches”. “In view of the foregoing, we hereby affirm that Mehmood Khan Achakzai enjoys the confidence and support of the majority of the members belonging to the opposition, and is, therefore, the most suitable person to hold this constitutional office.

The jailed PTI founder Imran Khan had nominated Mehmoiod Khan Achakzai for the opposition leader’s slot in the NA in August last year, nearly two weeks after the Election Commission of Pakistan disqualified him following his conviction in cases pertaining to riots on May 9, 2023. The opposition had also submitted the nomination papers for Achakzai — who also heads the opposition alliance Tehreek-i-Tahafuz-i-Ayin-i-Pakistan (TTAP) — to the speaker’s office in October 2025.

However the Speaker’s inaction on this nomination led to a lot of speculation in the political and media circles. The opposition accused the government of making attempts to undermine parliamentary traditions.

Barrister Gohar said that his party expected the speaker of the National Assembly, Ayaz Sadiq to announce the issuance of notification for the appointment of Leader of the Opposition by coming Thursday.

The National Assembly has functioned without a leader of the opposition for the last five months which in practical terms mean that many legislative businesses in the lower house of the parliament would have remained pending in such a situation.

Ackzai is considered a personal friend of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who is leader of the ruling party. Many eyebrows were raised in the ruling party when Ackzai, out of frustration with the changing course of Nawaz Sharif’s politics, joined hands with Imran Khan’s PTI.

It is pertinent to mention here that Ackzai used to blame Imran Khan for all anti-democratic moves of his government. Now he levels similar allegations against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.