ISLAMABAD: In a bid to nominate a consensus candidate for the position of caretaker prime minister, an eight-member Parliamentary committee has been constituted, Dispatch News Desk (DND) reported on Tuesday.
A notification from the National Assembly Secretariat has been issued in this regard on Tuesday evening.
For the bipartisan parliamentary committee, four names were proposed by the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP)-led coalition government while as many names came from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
The PPP proposed Khursheed Shah, Farooq H. Naek, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Ghulam Bilour for the committee. On the other hand, Senator Pervaiz Rashid, Khawaja Saad Rafiq, Sardar Yaqoob and Sardar Mehtab Abbasi will represent the PML-N.
All four names from the opposition’s side of the committee are of PML-N members. However, 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.
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 of Pakistan (ECP), which will have to finalise one name out of four, two each from the PPP and the PML-N, for the post of caretaker prime minister within two days.
Earlier, a high-level meeting of leaders of the PPP, chaired by Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, decided to stick to the party’s proposed names for the caretaker prime minister.
The sources said that the party decided to refer the issue of section of caretaker Prime Minister to a parliamentary committee in line with the constitutional requirements.
The PPP had initially proposed the names of Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Dr Ishrat Husain, and Justice (retd) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso for the position of caretaker PM.
On the other hand, the PML-N had proposed the names of Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, Justice (retd) Shakirullah Jan and Rasul Bakhsh Palijo.
DND
