The outgoing Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government and the opposition on Friday evolved consensus on the name for an interim chief minister of the province ahead of elections, appointing retired bureaucrat Azam Khan to the post.
Khan, a former chief secretary of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, was the unanimous pick during a meeting between outgoing chief minister Mahmood Khan and opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani in Peshawar. “Azam Khan is our consensus candidate for the post of caretaker chief minister. We have chosen a person who is acceptable to all,” Durrrani, a member of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl told media after the decision.
Similarly, Mahmood Khan said it was a positive development that the name of a caretaker chief minister had been unanimously agreed upon. “We agreed on Azam Khan in consultation with our leader,” he said, referring to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan.
The KP Governor’s House, on Saturday, officially notified Azam Khan’s appointment. “I, Haji Ghulam Ali, the governor Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, hereby appoint Mr. Azam Khan as the caretaker chief minister Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in terms of Clause (1A) of the Article 224 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” it said, adding this resulted from an agreement between the leader of the opposition and outgoing chief minister.
In addition to serving as a former chief secretary of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Azam Khan has also served in the ministries of religious affairs and petroleum.