The parliamentary committee of the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday night agreed on veteran journalist Najam Sethi as the caretaker chief minister of Punjab.
Sethi has earlier served as a federal minister in the caretaker setup led by Malik Meraj Khalid in 1996.
The six-member committee of the Punjab Assembly reached consensus on the third and final day of consultative sessions, and announced its decision just hours before the midnight deadline.
Former ministers Rana Sanaullah, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman and Iqbal Chunnar represented the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) in the committee, while the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and PML-Quaid were represented by Shaukat Basra, Zulfiqar Gondal and Chaudhry Zaheer.
The PML-N had suggested the names of former Justice Amer Raza and former bureaucrat Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed while the opposition wanted to see either Justice Zahid Husain or senior journalist Najam Sethi for the post.
Sethi hosts a show on a local television channel. He is also the editor-in-chief of The Friday Times, a political weekly, and previously had been the editor of English newspaper Daily Times and Daily Aajkal an Urdu-language newspaper.
Shortly after his nomination for the post, Sethi told reporters that he would ensure transparent elections in the province. He said that he will approach the Election Commission and will extend his full support to the panel for fair polls.
The parliamentary committee in Punjab had earlier failed to reach consensus and even the members announced in the morning to refer the matter to the Election Commission.
However, PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif intervened in the matter and asked his brother Shahbaz Sharif to summon a session of the committee again to finalise the nomination for interim chief minister.
With the nomination of caretaker Punjab CM, the process of caretaker governments has been completed in the four provinces and the Center.
Sethi won the 1999 International Press Freedom Award of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists and the 2009 World Association of Newspapers’ Golden Pen of Freedom Award.
He graduated from Government College University in Lahore. He received a Master’s degree in Economics at UK’s Cambridge University, and spent two additional years there at Clare College as a PhD research student.