Mir Hazar Khan Khoso has a challenging task ahead
So the Election Commission of Pakistan has done what the politicians couldn’t do: appointing a caretaker prime minister. Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, who has served as Chief Justice, Balochistan High Court and briefly as acting governor of the province, has been appointed as Caretaker Prime Minister. Though Mr Khoso, who was nominated by the PPP, is not a controversial figure, the PML-N may not be too happy about his appointment as the Leader of the Opposition, Ch Nisar Ali, appeared to count on the ECP to select one of his nominees for the slot. But this appointment makes it clear that President Asif Ali Zardari hasn’t run out of tricks up his sleeve: he has one-upped the Sharifs again.
Since this appointment was made after following a lengthy constitutional procedure, there is nothing wrong about it. In fact, it is a good thing for democratic transition, no doubt, but what would have been even better was that the elected representatives should have done it without the help of any non-elected body. The politicians have shown immaturity, distrust and a penchant for laying off responsibility for which they could be held accountable some day. In other words, they are not interested in making difficult choices, or as in this case compromises; they are only interested in eating the cake, not in baking one, so to speak.
For the newly appointed caretaker PM, though, the journey ahead is short but treacherous. He has to maintain his impartiality and prove that the confidence deposed in him to carry out the job by the ECP, and by proxy by politicians too, was not misplaced. His job is not going to be easy but he has the resources and the backing of constitution at his disposal to deliver specifically what he has been tasked with.
The caretaker setup in provinces has also been installed, except for the Punjab which is on hold as the PML-N and the PPP haven’t yet agreed on a name, reprising their roles in the centre in agreeing to a name. The parliamentary committee to deliberate and finalise a name for the slot of caretaker CM has two more days, including today, to come up with a name. Former Justice Amir Raza Khan and Khawaja Zaheer, a burearucrat, have been nominated by the PML-N, while senior journalist Najam Sethi and former Justice Zahid Hussain have been nominated by the PPP for the post. A stalemate here would create the same situation and is likely to be blamed on the PML-N more than the PPP because of Punjab being the PML-N’s bastion of power and their desire to hold on to power as long as they can. Providing room for non-elected bodies to affect the political process, legally or illegally, is not a solution. Our politicians need to keep that in mind.