The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has nominated party leader Asad Qaiser as speaker of the National Assembly and Chaudhry Sarwar as governor of Punjab province.
PTI vice president Shah Mahmood Qureshi briefed reporters on Friday about the party’s nominations for the posts of NA speaker and Punjab governor. “We have clear majority in Punjab and we are in a position to form government in the province,” he said. Qaiser, who has previously served as speaker of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assembly, brings a wealth of experience with him and enjoys an admirable relationship with all the political parties, he added.
Asad Qaiser won PK-44 Swabi-II constituency on the PTI’s ticket with 31,658 votes, defeating ANP’s Gul Zamin Shah during the July 25 general election.
Qaiser belongs to Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and graduated from the University of Peshawar before moving on to a career in education. He joined the PTI in 1996, prior to which he was a member of the Jamaat-e-Islami’s student wing. In the PTI, he served as district president of Swabi and later provincial president of the party. Chaudhry Sarwar, who has served as Punjab governor in the past, was born and raised in Pakistan, later moving to Scotland in the 1970s. He has served as a member of the British parliament. In 2013, he left Britain and returned to Pakistan joining the PML-N and being appointed governor of Punjab province. Sarwar left the PML-N over difference and joined the PTI in 2015. Earlier this year he was appointed to the Senate of Pakistan on a general seat from Punjab.
Published in Daily Times, August 11th 2018.
