PESHAWAR: Outgoing Chief Minister Pervez Khattak and Leader of the Opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Maulana Lutafur Rahman failed to build up a consensus on the name of caretaker chief minister for the province during the transitional period.
Following this, the two sides recommended three names each to the speaker for the parliamentary committee to make a decision. Other than Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), there are five other parties being represented in the outgoing provincial assembly but none of these five parties was consulted regarding the 6-member committee.
In reaction, five opposition parties, including Jamat-e-Islami (JI), which remain a part of the PTI-led coalition held an emergency meeting and announced the rejection of the 6-member committee during a press conference.
All five opposition parties, while rejecting PTI-JUI-F parliamentary committee, demanded of the speaker not to entertain the body’s proposals. Similarly, the opposition parties asked the chief election commissioner to take a notice of “deals and heals” politics between the two parties. However, leaders of all these five political parties made it clear that they will resist the decision made by the parliamentary body comprising members from the two parties.
According to the procedure, the six-member body will pick one of the four candidates whose names have been already discussed and debated between the outgoing chief minister and the outgoing opposition leader. Besides billionaire Manzoor Afridi who is a nominee of JUI-F, the remaining three included former Supreme Court (SC) judge Justice (r) Dost Mohammad Khan, former chief secretary Ijaz Qureshi and senior civil servant and former auditor general Himayat Ullah Khan. Ijaz Qureshi is also stated to be a close friend of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazalur Rahman.
