ISLAMABAD: The back-channel efforts by the government and the opposition have witnessed failure till now in reaching an agreement over a name for the post of caretaker prime minister, while they have just one day before the process for selection of a caretaker prime minister goes to a parliamentary committee.
Under the constitution, if parties fail to evolve a consensus over the issue then after 12:00 am tonight the matter would be referred to an eight-member bipartisan parliamentary committee.
In case, the parliamentary committee also fails to nominate a consensus candidate within three days, the matter will automatically go to the Election Commission, which will have to finalise one name out of four, two each from the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), for the post of caretaker prime minister within two days.
The PPP-led government has already sent the names of PML-Q chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, PPP leaders Farooq H. Naek and Khurshid Shah, and ANP leader Ghulam Ahmed Bilour to the speaker as its members for the parliamentary committee.
The sources said that the PML-N has also finalised four names from the opposition side for the eight-member bipartisan panel.
“We will send the names to National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza after Monday midnight or Tuesday,” PML-N spokesman Senator Mushahidullah said on Monday.
Mushahidullah said Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had finalised the names. He did not disclose the names, but said one was from the Senate and the rest from the National Assembly.
According to constitutional experts, the PML-N has to give equal representation to all opposition parties in the committee. Otherwise its members will become controversial, they argued.
However, it is learnt that all four names are from the PML-N as it has no confidence in any leaders in other opposition parties.
The PML-N had earlier considered nominating JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on the committee, but later it dropped the idea fearing that he may support the PPP candidate for the post of caretaker prime minister.
“I cannot say whether they all are from the PML-N or not because they have been selected by Chaudhry Nisar,” the spokesman said.
A source in the PML-N said the names of the members of the parliamentary committee might be approved at a meeting of the party in Lahore after Nawaz Sharif’s return from abroad on Tuesday.
The PPP had initially proposed the names of Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Dr Ishrat Husain, and Justice (retd) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso for the post of caretaker Prime Minister. On the other hand, the PML-N’s candidates were Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, Justice (retd) Shakirullah Jan and Rasul Bakhsh Palijo.
DND
