Mohsin Raza Naqvi on Sunday night took oath as the interim chief minister of Punjab after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) approved his appointment following a deadlock between the opposition and treasury over the replacement for former chief minister Parvez Elahi.
Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman administered oath to the interim chief minister at Governor’s House after the ECP issued its unanimous decision to appoint him to the caretaker slot. In its ruling, the electoral body said that the decision had been taken during a meeting of 15 participants chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja.
The Lahore-born Naqvi, a journalist by profession, founded the City News Network in 2009 at the age of 30 and now owns six news channels and a newspaper. He is widely known for his ties to various political personalities, including Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain. He was picked from a panel of four nominees, with the opposition proposing his name and that of Special Assistant to the P.M. Ahad Cheema and the treasury naming serving bureaucrat Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera and retired bureaucrat Naveed Akram Cheema.
As it had threatened prior to his appointment, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rejected the ECP’s announcement, with party leaders vowing street agitation and legal challenges. “No other options left but taking to the streets against this system,” PTI’s Chaudhry Fawad Hussain wrote on Twitter, as former chief minister Elahi described the decision as “controversial” and reiterated an intent to challenge it in the Supreme Court.
PTI Secretary General Asad Umar, also on Twitter, claimed the ECP’s decision was a “joke with the Constitution,” while senior PTI leader Shafqat Mahmood alleged that appointing Naqvi the interim chief minister was akin to “handing over power to [PMLN] and PPP to conduct elections in Punjab.”
PTI chief Imran Khan, meanwhile, accused the ECP of selecting “a sworn enemy of PTI” as caretaker chief minister. In a posting on Twitter, he claimed Naqvi was ineligible for the post, as he had made a voluntary return deal with the National Accountability Bureau, which the Supreme Court had declared rendered him unfit to hold any public office at the federal or provincial level.