Rifts delay consensus on caretaker KP CM

PESHAWAR/LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the opposition leader in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa could not overcome their differences that delayed a consensus on the caretaker chief minister.

The Awami National Party (ANP) on Thursday proposed a retired police officer, Zafarullah Khan, for the caretaker chief minister.

Other political parties, particularly the ruling PTI and main opposition parties in the previous provincial assembly, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazlur Rahman (JUI-F), Pakistan Peoples Party and Jamaat-e-Islami were still engaged in meetings to choose their candidates for the caretaker chief minister.

Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani are supposed to meet and discuss the future set-up but differences between them endangered the prospects of future caretaker government.

Both of them had recently issued critical statements against each other that widened the differences and delayed the meeting between them.

Meanwhile, sources close to JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman told The News that they had not yet finalised their names for the caretaker chief minister’s slot but proposed former chief secretary Javed Iqbal Khan and retired additional inspector general of police Qudratullah Marwat.

The PTI has not proposed any name but sources close to the chief minister said that they were likely to announce their nominee by Friday morning.

“The chief minister has discussed the party nominee with Imran Khan but he will finalise it after a meeting with former governor Shah Farman on Friday. The chief minister doesn’t want to sit with Akram Durrani but he will meet him to resolve the issue,” a senior PTI leader told The News on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, former information minister and JUI-F leader Asif Iqbal Daudzai said that they were waiting for the chief minister to invite the opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani for a meeting to discuss their nominees and then develop a consensus on one of them for the caretaker chief minister.

“Friday is the last day for the chief minister to meet the opposition leader and finalise the caretaker chief minister. If they are not able to meet, then the governor will write a letter to speaker of the provincial assembly to convene a meeting of the parliamentary parties, PTI and JUI-F, to propose their nominees,” Asif Iqbal explained. He said then the Election Commission of Pakistan would need to announce someone as the caretaker chief minister in case the parliamentary parties failed to develop a consensus on their nominees in three days.

On the other hand, Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain Khan has constituted a six-member committee comprising six former MPAs to reach a consensus over the name of caretaker chief minister of Punjab. The committee comprises three members from PTI, including Mian Aslam Iqbal, Raja Basharat, two from the PMLN including Malik Ahmad Khan, Malik Nadeem Kamran and one from the PPP, Syed Hassan Murtaza. The PTI and PMLQ have proposed the names of Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera and Naveed Akram Cheema for the slot of caretaker Punjab chief minister. The PDM has so far come up with the names of Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi and Ahad Khan Cheema. Sitting Punjab CM Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has categorically stated that he would not accept any nominee of the Election Commission.