Jailed ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s party elects new head before election

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, currently in jail facing what he says are more than 150 cases filed against him to keep him from contesting elections next year, has been replaced as head of the party he founded, officials say.

One of Khan’s lawyers was elected on Saturday as chairman of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, allowing it to take part in the national vote scheduled for February 8.

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan was nominated by Imran Khan himself to be the new chairman of the PTI, which the 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician founded in 1996. The two are not related.

The party’s chief election commissioner, Niazullah Niazi, said Gohar was elected unopposed.

The change was forced on the party after the Election Commission of Pakistan warned the PTI last month that it risked losing its emblem – a cricket bat – unless an internal ballot was held for party officers.

Election symbols are crucial in a country where the adult literacy rate is 58 percent, according to World Bank data.

(Aljazeera)