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Saturday, March 23, 2013
Committee falls flat; ECP will name PMBy Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary committee failed to evolve consensus on the caretaker prime minister following daylong hectic deliberations on Friday, sending the matter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The committee announced its decision late on Friday, just two hours before the expiry of the deadline for it to appoint a caretaker prime minister before the issue went to the ECP as per the constitution. “I announce with heavy heart that the committee could not reach on a consensus on interim prime minister,” member of the committee Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain told media after the meeting, outside parliament.
The failure of the committee to evolve consensus was expected in view of differences between the PPP, its allies and the PML-N on each other’s nominees. The committee held three sittings on the last day of its constitutional mandate to select the caretaker prime minister with. It considered Justice (r) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso and Dr Ishrat Hussain, nominated by the government, and PML-N nominees Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahid and Rasool Bux Paleejo.
The committee meeting was chaired by PML-N’s Sardar Yaqoob Nasir. PML-Q’s Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain represented the government. Following the meeting, members of the PML-N announced to accept the decision of the ECP about the interim prime minister. “We will accept the decision of the ECP,” PML-N’s Khawaja Saad Rafiq told the media. When the same question was posed to Syed Khursheed Shah of the government side, he said that the ECP was formed by parliament and avoided giving an explicit answer.
Khawaja Saad Rafiq, however, said non-selection of the caretaker prime minister was not a failure of the politicians. But PPP’s Farooq H Naek said that “it is our failure that we could not evolve consensus on the caretaker prime and now the decision would be taken by the ECP”. Following the failure of parliamentary committee, the ECP will have to choose the interim premier in two days, and it is bound to take the decision by March 24.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk