Caretaker PM: Siraj honours Dr AQ Khan

ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sirajul Haq has taken the lead over everybody by nominating renowned nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan as his nominee for the office of caretaker prime minister while the constitutional consultees – Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and leader of opposition in the National Assembly Khurshid Shah - are yet to kick off a meaningful discussion.

However, the father of Pakistan’s nuclear bomb quickly expressed his skepticism over his selection saying that permission of the United States is needed to give him any official position. “I am not fond of offices. I am currently being treated for infection.”

By voicing this opinion, Dr AQ Khan articulated that he would certainly not be chosen as the interim premier under any circumstances. Sirajul Haq may also be aware of this eventuality, but he stated his party’s first choice by naming him for the slot.

“The scientist made Pakistan an Islamic atomic power which is a stupendous and unforgettable feat. Pervez Musharraf came under US pressure and placed restrictions on him and kept him under house arrest while India held the prestige of its atomic scientist and made him the president. There is a need to redress Musharraf’s injustice and repay Dr Abdul Qadir Khan’s achievement by honoring him.”

The caretaker prime minister will be in place on June 1. Before that Abbasi and Khurshid Shaha will hold and complete consultations to evolve a consensus on one name. In this process, the premier will take on board the allied parties of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) while the opposition leader will talk to the opposition parties to come out with consensus names as he had done while searching for the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and four members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

On both these occasions, the Jamaat-e-Islami’s preferences were included among the names recommended by Khurshid Shah, but not ultimately nominated.

Given the bonhomie between the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in the wake of their collaboration in the election to the top Senate positions, the opposition leader will take the proposals given by Imran Khan more seriously than before.

However, these will be informal consultations which find no place in the Constitution that confines the process only to the prime minister and the opposition leader.

The discussions are broadened with the obvious objective of having consensus caretakers so that no controversies crop up marring the atmosphere for the general elections that the interim setups will oversee. However, in such key appointments, agreements, reached for the time being, generate rows subsequently as happened in the case of Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim as the CEC, who had to quit in view of harsh criticism by certain political parties.

In case of no consensus among the consultees, the matter will go to respective bipartisan parliamentary committees having equal representation from the treasury and opposition benches, and if they are also unable to agree on the names of the interim prime minister and chief ministers, the ECP will finalize these caretakers.

With ten weeks to go before the interim governments will be in office, Abbasi and Khurshid Shah are about to kick-start the consultations.

They have already held initial, inconclusive talks. It will be a tough process as usual as every side wants its man to be chief caretaker. The prevalent political environment marred with high tensions hardly warrants the process to be smooth and hassle-free.

The federal and provincial interim premier/chief ministers will be chosen and will assume offices amid an atmosphere that the caretaker setups, which, under the Constitution, are to be there for only sixty days, will continue for a couple of years.

This kind of grapevine is churned out on the eve of construction of every caretaker arrangement over the years that it will be maintained for a few years to cleanse the politics and carry out “ruthless accountability” of politicians.

However, the Constitution doesn’t provide for extension of the tenure of any interim government, which has no role to play except to supervise the parliamentary elections. In addition, there is also no place for a technocrats’ regime in the basic document.