The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Saturday took up the matter of appointing a caretaker chief minister in Punjab after a parliamentary committee formed by the Punjab Assembly speaker failed to establish any consensus candidate.
Under Article 224A of the Constitution, a six-member parliamentary panel—with equal representation from the treasury and the opposition—has three days to pick one of four candidates, with both sides nominating two each. However, due to delays in notifying the panel, the committee’s functioning was reduced to one day.
On Friday, the panel comprising former ministers Raja Basharat, Mian Aslam Iqbal, and Hashim Jawan Bakht for the government and Malik Ahmad Khan, Malik Nadeem Kamran, and PPP’s Syed Hassan Murtaza for the opposition met to deliberate on the proposed candidates. Outgoing Punjab Chief Minister had nominated Cabinet Division Secretary Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera and former Punjab chief secretary Naveed Akram Cheema, while Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Hamza Shehbaz had picked Special Assistant to the P.M. Ahad Cheema, and media house owner Mohsin Naqvi. However, they could not settle on any one candidate, with the opposition claiming the government’s nominees failed to meet legal requirements and the treasury claiming their nominees were the “best option” compared to the other side’s picks.
Speaking with media after the meeting, Basharat claimed that the candidates proposed by the dissolved government were the “best options, if measured by any yardstick.” By contrast, Malik Ahmad Khan said neither of the two candidates proposed by Elahi met legal requirements. He claimed Sukhera was a dual national and could not hold public office, while also being a serving bureaucrat that barred him from the interim post under Article 63(1)(d).
On Cheema, Khan said he had served as the chairman of the Federal Public Service Commission was barred from any further employment in service of Pakistan after ceasing to hold office. According to local media, Naveed Akram Cheema has recused himself from consideration, leaving the ECP with just three options: Sukhera, Ahad Cheema, and Naqvi. Cheema would also likely be deemed unsuitable, as he holds a position in the federal government that leaves him unsuitable for an interim post.
According to sources within the ECP, the watchdog aims to select a caretaker chief minister and notify it by Sunday night.
The PTI and PMLQ have already warned that they would approach the Supreme Court if any “controversial person”—i.e. any candidate apart from their own—were selected as caretaker chief minister by the ECP.
Date for polls
Also on Friday, PA Speaker Sibtain Khan wrote to Governor Balighur Rehman, asking him to fix a date for polls in the province following its dissolution on Jan. 14. According to the letter, Article 105(3), read with Articles 224 and 224A, require the governor to announce a date for elections no later than 90 days from the date of the assembly’s dissolution. This, read the letter, has not yet been done.