GOVT, OPP AGREE ON AZAM KHAN’S NAME FOR KP CARETAKER CM.. PESHAWAR/LAHORE - Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister and Leader of the Opposition Friday agreed on the name of former bureaucrat Mohammad Azam Khan for the slot of the KP caretaker chief minister. A letter addressed to Governor Haji Ghulam Ali and signed by outgoing Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and Leader of the Opposition Akram Khan Durrani stated that the two had agreed to nominate Khan after consultation. The letter asks the governor to proceed with appointing Azam Khan as the caretaker chief minister. Talking to the media in Peshawar after the conclusion of a meeting between the two sides, Durrani said two names each were proposed by him and the PTI. He said both parties agreed on and finalised Azam Khan for the role from five nominees under consideration. Durrani said PTI leader Parvez Khattak played an important role in the meeting. “There is a serious problem of insecurity and inflation in the province. We will not push the nation towards further despair,” he said The KP Assembly was dissolved on Wednesday after the governor signed and approved the chief minister’s summary for the dissolution of the provincial legislature.
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The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will now be appointing the Punjab caretaker chief minister as the parliamentary committee failed to evolve consensus over one name in its meeting held on Friday afternoon.The six-member committee having equal representation of both the government and the opposition deliberated over four names, but the two sides stuck to their respective positions, thereby leaving the matter to be decided by the Election Commission. Former members of the outing Punjab Assembly Malik Aslam Iqbal, Mohammad Basharat Raja and Hashim Jawan Bakht attended the meeting as nominees of the PTI, PML-Q alliance where Malik Mohammad Ahmad Khan, Syed Hassan Murtaza and Malik Nadeem Kamran represented the Opposition. The four names considered by the parliamentary committee would be sent to the Election Commission for final decision. They include Cabinet Secretary Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera, ex-Punjab Chief Secretary Naveed Akram Cheema, a media house owner, Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi and ex-bureaucrat Ahad Cheema.
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The PTI and the PML-Q had already rejected the two names presented by the Opposition and there was little chance of consensus being evolved over one name in the parliamentary committee. The Election Commission would pick one name as the care-taker CM within two days. The ruling alliance had initially proposed the names of former Punjab chief secretary Nasir Mahmood Khosa, a serving bureaucrat Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera and former health minister Naseer Khan. The latter is stated to be a relative of Ch Parvez Elahi. While Nasir Mahmood Khosa had refused to accept the offer, the name of Naseer Khan was dropped by the coalition partners. Naseer has a dual nationality and there was a likelihood of his name being rejected for this reason. Talking to the media after the meeting, former provincial minister for law and parliamentary affairs, Raja Basharat said that it has been decided to send the four names to the ECP to appoint the care-taker chief minister. He also threatened that the PTI-PML-Q alliance would use all available options including the option to approach the court if the ECP chose a controversial person for the caretaker CM slot. He urged the ECP to compare the credentials of all the nominees and pick the best person from amongst them.
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Former Punjab Assembly member Nadeem Kamran who represented the opposition in the committee said that the candidates proposed by the PTIPML-Q alliance were not eligible enough even to hold a debate over their names. He also censured Ch Parvez Elahi for his statement to approach the Supreme Court even before the meeting of the parliamentary committee. Advocating for the name of Mohsin Naqvi, he said that he was non-parti san person and media star who had also worked with CNN. A day before the parliamentary committee meeting, Punjab Chief Minister Ch Parvez Elahi Thursday had declared that the PTI-PMLQ alliance will not accept a chief minister appointed by the Election Commission. Giving reasons, he had stated that he was aware of the thinking and intentions of the Election Commission which was instituting false cases against the PTI chairman Imran Khan on an almost daily basis. Parvez Elahi had also threatened that they will not let the caretaker chief minister to perform his duties if he was appointed by the chief election commissioner. He had also talked of approaching the Supreme Court against the ECP’s decision.
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