ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah on Saturday reiterated that a parliamentary committee will now evolve a consensus over a name for the position of the caretaker prime minister.
Speaking with the media, he said he will formally send four names to the NA Speaker for an eight-member parliamentary committee to be constituted to pick an interim PM.
Two of the members of the committee will be from his party while one each will be from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P), he said.
The opposition leader said it is his prerogative to suggest any four names as members of the committee, but he wanted to take other political parties on board on the matter.
He said he will send PPP’s Naveed Qamar and Sherry Rehman’s name for the committee. Whereas, the names of PTI’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi and MQM-P’s Farooq Sattar are expected to be sent for the purpose.
Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah on Friday said he would not meet Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi again for consultations on the name of the caretaker prime minister.
He said he would send the names of the opposition’s two nominees for the slot to the National Assembly Speaker for placing them before a parliamentary committee that will now try to develop consensus over a name for the caretaker premier.
He said the prime minister had backtracked from his position time to time in their consultative meetings.
The current government is expected to conclude its five-year term on May 31, after which the caretaker government will take over to hold the general elections. The caretaker prime minister will lead the interim set-up and attend the day-to-day governance matters.
In previous meetings the government has suggested names of former chief justices of Pakistan Justice (retd) Nasir-ul-Mulk and Justice (retd) Tassaduq Hussain Jillani. The opposition leader has floated the names of Zaka Ashraf and Jalil Abbas Jilani for the position.
If the stalemate between the government and opposition persists, the matter of nomination of the caretaker prime minister will be forwarded to a parliamentary panel comprised of equal number of members from the government and the opposition. If the deadlock still continues the matter will finally resolved by the Election Commission of Pakistan by nominating a caretaker prime minister. NNI
