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Tuesday, March 12, 2013
NA Opp leader forwards 3 names for caretaker PMBy Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Monday night forwarded three names to Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf for the caretaker prime minister.
The personalities proposed for the slot of caretaker prime minister include two retired judges of the Supreme Court Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahid, Justice (r) Shakirullah Jan and a veteran politician from Sindh, Rasool Bakhsh Palejo.
Khan, while talking to newsmen, said that under Article 224 of the Constitution, he could send even more than three names to the prime minister. However, he said if the outgoing opposition leader and the leader of the House do not reach a consensus on a name for the prime minister then the matter would go the parliamentary committee comprising four members each from the opposition and the government.
“According to Article 224 (A), the outgoing opposition leader and the government will be bound to propose two names each to the parliamentary committee,” he said. Reacting to some reports that the NA speaker had started consultation about the parliamentary committee, Khan said the speaker had no such authority. The speaker is to just notify the members of the committee proposed to him by the opposition and the government, he said. The opposition leader made it clear that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) still had a card to play if the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leadership does not stop playing tactics regarding creation of fair and transparent caretaker set-ups in Balochistan and Sindh. “The chief minister will not advise dissolution of Punjab Assembly simultaneously with National Assembly and other provincial assemblies on March 16 and it will complete its tenure till April 8,” he said. Khan also criticised the PPP leaders for calling three names being proposed by him as a joke. “They will be satisfied only when I propose names of Jahangir Badar or Qamar Zaman Kaira for the slot of the caretaker prime minister,” he said. He observed as to what could be the bigger joke than Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) opting to sit on opposition benches, just 10 days before completion of assemblies tenure and now the PPP and MQM who were allies in the government would hold consultations for the caretaker set-up in Sindh.
To a question about reports that the International Monetary Fund was pressurising for nomination of ex-finance minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh as caretaker prime minister, he said, “Do not even think about that.” He told newsmen that the PML-N government in Punjab had almost completed its homework on its side regarding the caretaker set-up in the province. To a question regarding government’s reservations on the amended nomination forms, he said the PML-N fully backed the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which would hold the defining elections in a fair and transparent manner.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk