Caretaker set-up: Meeting between PM, opposition leader concludes

Prime minister and opposition leader expected to hold a press conference early afternoon

The sixth and apparent last meeting between Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah to decide upon a candidate for the coveted position of caretaker prime minister concluded on Monday.



The two are expected to hold a press conference early afternoon to relay their decision on the caretaker set up. Reports reveal that the two will hold another meeting before the press conference to finalise the decision.

In earlier meetings, the premier and the opposition leader were unable to agree on a single name. Shah, in an address to the media last week, said that he would no longer meet the PM, and would instead write a letter to Speaker of NA Ayaz Sadiq to initiate the matter through a Parliamentary Committee.

If the prime minister and opposition fail to agree on a name, the decision of caretaker PM goes to a Parliamentary Committee. If the committee fails to agree, then the decision passes on to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), who will take a decision after taking views of all involved parties.

On May 23, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) called for picking any of its three candidates to serve at the coveted post. A meeting of the PTI bigwigs was presided over by party Chairman Imran Khan at Banigala.



A statement issued after the meeting said that caretaker PM should be appointed from any of the three PTI nominees – former chief justice of Pakistan Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, former governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr Ishrat Hussain and Abdul Razak Dawood, an industrialist who served as federal minister during the Musharraf era.