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Sunday, January 27, 2013No room for technocrat caretaker setup: Kaira
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kaira on Saturday said that there was no room for a technocrat caretaker government, as politicians could better manage the affairs of the country.
Talking to newsmen outside the Parliament House, Kaira said that in the presence of a host of honest and clean politicians, there was no need to ask technocrats to work as caretakers. He said that Pakistan was created by the politicians, who could better run its affairs. Responding to a question, the minister said that the negotiating team of the government would visit Lahore on Sunday (today) to hold talks with Minhajul Quran chief Tahirul Qadri.
Minister for Law Farooq H Naek will present a detailed report in the meeting, highlighting various constitutional aspects of implementing the Islamabad Declaration, he added. The negotiating team has already held a meeting with the chief election commissioner, besides consulting leading constitutional experts, he said. Replying to another question, Kaira said former chief of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Tauqir Sadiq was appointed as chief executive by former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on the recommendation of a committee, and the latter cannot be blamed for the wrongs of any of his appointee.
Regarding transparency in the appointment, he said a committee had short-listed four candidates out of a total of 17 candidates. Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf had not appointed Tauqir Sadiq, he added. Responding to a query, the minister said media should focus on court verdicts rather than highlighting remarks during the proceedings in order to avoid creating sensation.
The information minister said that opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar’s demand for removal of governors before the interim setup was illogical as they had nothing to do with the elections. “Both the president and governors had nothing to do with the powers of the executive. Even after 18th Amendment, the mandate of the caretaker setup has also been limited to running day-to-day affairs and assisting the election commission for holding fair and transparent election,” the minister said.
He said hype regarding the caretaker setup was being created for being the first experience after the 18th Amendment. However in future, it would not matter which party is in power during the elections, he added. “It looks as if Chaudhry Nisar had neither gone through the 18th Amendment nor seemed to be accepting it by heart,” the minister said, adding that he had neither attended the meeting of 27-member Constitutional Reforms Committee nor signed the committee report.
Kaira said it seemed as if Nisar desired the election of “note and vote,” of the past, but he should realise that the whole system had now been changed through the constitutional amendments. He said the constitution had made it clear that the caretaker setup would be formed through consultation between the leader of the House and leader of the Opposition, but a confusion was being created unnecessarily. A consensus caretaker setup would be installed in the country as per constitutional requirements, he said, adding there are contradictions between the point of views of PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Chaudhary Nisar Ali Khan, as they often differed on key issues. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk