Pakistan Muslim League (Q) He was elected to the
National Assembly of Pakistan from
Constituency NA-19 (Haripur) as a candidate of
Pakistan Muslim League (Q) (PML-Q) in
2002 Pakistani general election. He received 81,496 votes and defeated
Pir Sabir Shah. Khan was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister
Shaukat Aziz and was appointed the Minister of State for Finance where he served from 2004 He ran for the seat of the National Assembly from Constituency NA-19 (Haripur) as a candidate of PML (Q) in
2008 Pakistani general election, but was unsuccessful. He received 50,631 votes and lost the seat to
Sardar Muhammad Mushtaq Khan.
Pakistan Muslim League (N) He joined
Pakistan Muslim League (N) (PML-N) in 2012. He was re-elected to the National Assembly from Constituency NA-19 (Haripur) as a candidate of PML (N) in the by-election held in 2014 and also served as Chairman Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Economic Affairs. In 2015, he was unseated as he became ineligible to continue in office as constituency election was invalidated by voting irregularities due to rigging.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf In February 2018, he joined
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). He received 172,609 votes and defeated
Babar Nawaz Khan. On 11 September 2018, he was inducted into the federal cabinet of Prime Minister
Imran Khan and was appointed
Federal Minister for Power. On 24 April 2019 after the Prime Minister reshuffled the cabinet team, he was given the additional charge of the Ministry of Petroleum, which was previously held by
Ghulam Sarwar Khan. In mid-April 2021 Prime Minister Imran Khan reshuffled the Cabinet, again transferring Omar Ayub Khan from Minister of Energy to Minister of Economic Affairs. Khan was reelected to the National Assembly as a PTI-affiliated independent following the party's banning. On 16 February, senior PTI official
Asad Qaiser said that Imran Khan had nominated Ayub Khan as the party's nominee for prime minister, despite him being in hiding over charges relating to the
May 9 riots in 2023. Omar Ayub Khan was a key member in organizing the
Imran Khan-led
2022 Long March, a protest against the
PML(N) government and the
military establishment’s role in politics, in the long march he was severely wounded and bruised by police.
Leader of the Opposition Ayub played a leadership role in the
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) following
Imran Khan’s removal from office. Ayub was given a high leadership role in the upcoming
2024 Pakistani elections, in which he served as the PTI-Independents candidate for prime minister, campaign head and Secretary-General. Omar Ayub participated by holding press conferences and taking a party leadership role alongside
Gohar Ali Khan. Ayub is a key advocate for Imran Khan and claims that the
2024 elections were rigged. Following the 2024 elections which Omar Ayub and the PTI alleged were rigged, Ayub was elected as 12th
Leader of Opposition by
PTI-
SIC parliamentarians. As Leader of the Opposition, he has furthered the claims that the elections were rigged, as well as delivered pro-Imran Khan and anti-
Military establishment in politics speeches inside the
National Assembly of Pakistan. On 27 June 2024, Ayub announced his resignation as
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's chairman of the central finance board and
party secretary general, announcing on
Twitter that his resignation letter addressed to
Imran Khan and
Gohar Ali Khan had been accepted. He remarked that he would continue as opposition leader in the NA and as a party worker, citing as opposition leader he was not able to fulfil the role of party general secretary, calling for another appointment in his place. The resignation came amidst reports of 27 PTI-backed
Sunni Ittehad MNAs resigning from the
National Assembly in protest against party leadership and criticism from other party leaders including
Sher Afzal Marwat,
Shahryar Afridi,
Shandana Gulzar and ex-PTI leader
Fawad Chaudhry. According to reports, 21 of these
MNAs displayed their intention to establish a "forward bloc" due to party leaderships failure to release Imran Khan from jail. The next day on 28 June, a PTI parliamentary party meeting resolution called for rejecting Omar Ayub's resignation supporting Ayub's running of the party during "testing times" and "unanimously" expressing confidence in him. The party meeting was attended by
Gohar Ali Khan, Omar Ayub Khan, Asad Gohar,
Ali Muhammad Khan and others. On 31 July 2025, Ayub and 195 others were convicted by a court in
Faisalabad and sentenced to up to 10 years' imprisonment over the
2023 Pakistani protests. On 5 August 2025, Election Commission of Pakistan disqualified him due to his conviction in terrorism cases. == Publications ==