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Outgoing Punjab Chief Minister Parvez Elahi—who dissolved the provincial assembly last week—on Thursday said he would challenge in the Supreme Court any caretaker chief minister appointed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
“We won’t allow any caretaker chief minister selected by the Election Commission to function,” he told journalists at an event in Lahore. “We know the intention of the Election Commission, which hears cases against [PTI Chairman] Imran Khan on a daily basis, and shall move the Supreme Court against its decision,” he said, claiming that the three names that had been proposed by the PMLQ and PTI were “respectable” candidates, while those picked by the opposition were a “joke.”
While the matter for the appointment of the interim chief minister has yet to reach the ECP, it is appearing increasingly unlikely that the opposition and treasury benches will be able to agree to a consensus candidate in the two days remaining to them. Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain Khan has summoned for today (Friday) a maiden meeting of the six-member parliamentary committee—comprising three lawmakers each from the treasury and the opposition—for the appointment of a caretaker chief minister under Article 224A of the Constitution.
The treasury benches are being represented by former ministers Raja Basharat, Mian Aslam Iqbal and Hashim Jawan Bakht, while the opposition’s committee comprises Special Assistant to the P.M. Malik Ahmad Khan, PPP’s parliamentary leader Syed Hassan Murtaza and Malik Nadeem Kamran. The committee has three days to deliberate on the nominations forwarded by both Elahi and opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz and develop consensus, failing which the issue will be placed before the ECP, which would have two days to pick one of the nominees.
Initially, Elahi proposed the names of former chief secretary Nasir Mahmood Khosa, serving bureaucrat Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera, and Naseer Khan, while Hamza nominated Special Assistant to the P.M. Ahad Cheema and Mohsin Naqvi, owner of a media house. However, the PTI amended its list on Thursday—stoking controversy—by removing Naseer Khan and Nasir Khosa, who has withdrawn his name from consideration. The new names proposed by the outgoing chief minister are Sukhera and Naveed Akram Cheema, a former chief secretary. The opposition has objected to this change, claiming no further amendments are permitted when the matter has been referred to the committee; the PTI disagrees.