Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday defended the nomination of Sardar Usman Buzdar as his party's candidate for the Punjab chief minister post.

The newly-elected prime minister took to Twitter saying that he has done his "due diligence over the past two weeks and have found him [Buzdar] to be an honest man".

Buzdar has "integrity and stands by my vision and ideology of Naya Pakistan," the premier tweeted.

Imran Khan issued the statement after news regarding Buzdar's alleged involvement in corruption and criminal activities surfaced on local media.

A section of the press reported that the PTI’s nominee for Punjab CM had allegedly paid blood money to resolve a murder case against him after a court found him and his companions guilty in January 2000.

"He [Buzdar] belongs to an area of Punjab that is the most backward, people there have no water or electricity or hospital," Imran had said.

"The special thing about Sardar Usman is that he is well acquainted with how people live in those areas and secondly, he is aware of how the poor lead their lives. When he will assume the office of the chief minister he will know the nature of the plight that faces the underprivileged people of Pakistan."

Later in the evening, PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhary also issued a video statement clarifying that the accusations levelled against Buzdar were baseless and ill-intended.

Buzdar's nomination papers accepted

Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervez Elahi on Saturday accepted the nomination papers of Buzdar after scrutiny for the post of Punjab CM.

He will be facing off against PML-N candidate Hamza Shahbaz for the post, whose nomination papers were also accepted by Elahi.