Farooq Naeem—AFP
Multiple reports over the weekend have suggested the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) is angling for Finance Minister Ishaq Dar to be appointed the interim prime minister, raising questions over the “neutrality” of the caretaker setup and whether the party’s coalition partners are willing to accommodate such a demand.
According to sources, the PMLN—with the backing of self-exiled leader Nawaz Sharif—is endeavoring to convince all stakeholders, including the military, of the benefits of appointing Dar as interim prime minister. Unsurprisingly, this has triggered condemnations and concerns over the “neutrality” of the interim setup, as Dar is not only a serving minister of the incumbent government but also a key leader of the PMLN and a relative of Nawaz Sharif.
The biggest hurdle in the path of the PMLN’s plans, for now, appears to be the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which sources say has yet to be convinced that Dar would be a suitable caretaker prime minister. However, speaking with Geo News on Monday morning, PPP leader Faisal Kurim Kundi did not rule out the possibility, saying the party would be willing to consider Dar, as well as any other candidates, once they had been communicated to its leadership.
However, he made it clear, thus far Dar’s name had not been forwarded to the PPP and it had, as a result, not signed off on it. There have also been reports that PPP leaders Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari are both currently in Dubai to discuss the situation with Nawaz, but the party has stressed that no meetings are scheduled as yet.
In recent weeks, leaders of both the PPP and PMLN have suggested they would prefer a politician as the interim prime minister, claiming this would ensure elections happen on time, as non-politicians are not as inclined to act on the desires of political forces—a seeming reference to the outsized role of the security establishment in any interim setup. Though the election rules stress on a “neutral” setup ahead of elections, there is no explicit clause calling for it in the Constitution.
It is also clear, as evidenced from a statement issued by the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), that a caretaker government led by any party’s loyalist, would undermine the credibility of polls. The party has stressed that no credible elections can take place under the leadership of a leader from one of the parties contesting the polls.
If Dar—or any other politician affiliated with any party of the ruling coalition—is appointed the interim prime minister, it would mark a break from tradition set since the enactment of the 18th amendment. Under the legislation, caretaker setups in 2013 and 2018 were led by non-partisan prime ministers from the judiciary.