Imran Khan's PTI nominates former FM Qureshi as PM candidate

Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), the former ruling party of the country, has nominated ex-foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi for the post of Prime Minister.

PTI members Aamir Dogar and Ali Muhammad Khan will serve as endorsers for the party's vice-chairman, reports The Express Tribune on Sunday (10 April).

The PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi submitted four forms with the National Assembly Secretariat, while PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif, the joint opposition's candidate for the post, filed 13 forms, reports The Dawn.

Earlier today, PTI's Kanwal Shauzab and Zain Qureshi arrived at Parliament House to collect nomination papers on Qureshi's behalf.

The NA Secretariat had initially announced that 2pm would be the deadline for submitting the nomination papers for the election of the prime minister and the leader of the house while the scrutiny process would begin at 3pm.

Qureshi has twice served as foreign minister, from 2008 to 2011 and from August 2018 till the fall of the Imran Khan regime.

Qureshi entered politics in 1985 and associated himself with the Pakistan Muslim League (allying with Nawaz Sharif), before he joined Pakistan Peoples Party — only to leave it for PTI.

Qureshi was elected to the Punjab Assembly three times, in 1985, 1988, and 1990, and he also served as the province's finance minister.

He joined the PPP and was elected to the National Assembly in 1993, serving as Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs during Benazir Bhutto's cabinet.

Qureshi, who was born in 1956, comes from a wealthy and powerful feudal family in Multan. He graduated from the University of Cambridge with a law degree.