— ECP to finalise the name for caretaker KP CM within two days
Parliamentary committees in Punjab and Balochistan will attempt to reach a consensus on caretaker chief ministers for their respective provinces after provincial governments and the opposition remained in deadlock over the decision.
On the other hand, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would decide about the chief minister (CM) for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as the parliamentary committee could not come to a decision about the post.
An agreement has been reached to call a session of the parliamentary committee on Wednesday in relation to the appointment of a caretaker chief minister in Punjab.
The names which were suggested by the PTI later on also became controversial as party spokesman Fawad Chaudhry and Mahmood-ur-Rasheed disagreed over them.
The parliamentary committee and former opposition in Punjab Assembly (PA) are all set to meet on Wednesday to deliberate on the names for the caretaker chief minister of Punjab.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former opposition leader, Mehmood-ur-Rasheed has said that the committee is meeting on Tuesday as his party was engaged in the parliamentary board meeting for party tickets.
He said that it is quite likely that the PTI would propose names of news analyst Ayaz Amir and defence analyst Dr Hassan Askari for the post of caretaker chief minister.
On Sunday, PTI and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) finalised names of their representatives for the parliamentary committee mandated to consult over caretaker chief minister for Punjab.
PML-N nominated Rana Sanaullah, Malik Ahmed Khan and Khuwaja Imran Nazir, while PTI nominated a three-member committee under Rasheed, including Sibtain Khan and Shoaib Siddiqui.
The decision has to now be taken by the parliamentary committee as former chief minister Shehbaz Sharif and opposition leader failed to reach a consensus over the name of the caretaker chief minister, despite holding a number of meetings.
They did agree to appoint Nasir Mahmood Khosa as Punjab’s caretaker chief minister but his name was withdrawn by the PTI after receiving “severe reaction” from party workers.
Later, former chief minister Shehbaz Sharif nominated Pakistan Navy former chief Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah, former DG Intelligence Bureau Aftab Sultan, Justice (r) Sahir Ali and former IG Punjab Tariq Saleem Dogar for the post, while PTI came out with the names of Orya Maqbool Jan, Yaqub Izhar, and Askari.
BALOCHISTAN CARETAKER CM
The former provincial government and the opposition will forward two names each to the committee for a decision. The last meeting was held between former chief minister Abdul Quddus Bizenjo and opposition leader Abdul Rahim Tawal, but the deadlock persisted.
If the committee fails to decide on the caretaker chief minister’s name, the matter will be forwarded to the ECP following K-P’s example.
KP CARETAKER CM
According to a statement issued on Monday by former speaker Asad Qaiser, the names proposed by KP former chief minister and opposition leader would be referred to the ECP that will have to make a final decision within two days.
The two nominees recommended each by the former chief minister of KP and leader of the dissolved opposition, include bureaucrats Himayatullah Khan and Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi, businessperson Manzoor Khan Afridi, Justice (retd) Dost Muhammad.
ECP confirmed receiving suggestions, assuring the final name would be announced within the given time.
The parliamentary committee formed to decide and appoint a caretaker chief minister for KP met on June 2 at KP House Islamabad.
It was said three representatives each from the government and JUI-F participated in the meeting.
However, prior to the meeting, Awami National Party leader Sardar Hussain Babak raised issues over the composition of the committee. Babak was of the view that Khattak and former opposition leader Lutfur-Rehman decided the names of committee members among themselves without consulting leaders from other parties.