Shehbaz, Bilawal finalise names for governors

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari finalised the names of the governors for Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and Balochistan in their meeting at the Prime Minister House on Friday.

Since nothing has officially been released about the meeting, sources said that the prime minister and the PPP chairman approved the names of Sardar Salem Haider for the governorship of Punjab, Faisal Kareem Kundi for K-P and Jaffar Mandokhail for Balochistan.

Sources in both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PPP revealed that the prime minister had decided that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) – a government ally—would retain Sindh’s governorship and the incumbent, Kamran Tessori, would continue in the post.

The three names chosen for the governorship have longstanding affiliation with their respective parties. Haider has prior experience as special assistant to the prime minister on overseas Pakistanis and served as minister of state for defence and defence production.

Kundi, a former deputy speaker of the National Assembly, is currently the information secretary of the PPP, while Mandokhel, a senior PML-N leader, had been elected as member of the Balochistan Assembly multiple times.

Under a power-sharing formula agreed between the PML-N and the PPP before forming the government at the Centre, it was decided that the PPP would take the offices of the President, the Senate chairman and the National

Assembly deputy speaker and the governorship of Punjab and K-P.

In return, the PML-N got the offices of the prime minister, National Assembly speaker, Senate deputy chairman and governorships of Sindh and Balochistan. Post-elections, the PML-N and the PPPP had agreed that both the parties would support each other when the elections were held.

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For instance, the incumbent Senate Chairman Yousaf Raza Gilani, who won his seat from Multan in the general elections and voted for Prime Minister Shehbaz before vacating the seat and contesting the Senate elections from a Islamabad seat.
After Shehbaz Sharif became the prime minister, the PML-N supported Asif Zardari in his election as the president.

The same support for each other’s candidates was exercised during the elections of the National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker and the Senate chairman and deputy chairman.

Till now, only the governorship slots were pending a decision, which were filled in the meeting between Shehbaz and Bilawal. “They have finalised the three names in their meeting,” a PPP leader shared on condition of anonymity, confirming that Haider and Kundi were picked for the governor’s posts.

According to an official statement, Prime Minister Shehbaz and former foreign minister Bilawal met and discussed the overall political situation in the country. A key PPP leader, however, stated that the PPP chairman had gone to finalise the names of the governors with the prime minister.

Responding to a question whether the PPP-Parliamentarians was joining the federal cabinet after the budget, the PPP leader said that the party leadership had not yet decided to change its previous stance regarding joining the federal cabinet.

Admitting that the prime minister and other parties in the ruling coalition wanted the PPPP in the cabinet, the PPP official said, “the PPP doesn’t want to enter the cabinet”, adding “This was the party’s position before it joined the ruling alliance; it was the position 10 days ago and it’s the position today.”

The official termed the reports suggesting that PPPP was joining the cabinet after the budget speculative, saying that no such discussion had taken place in the party meetings.

The information minister and the spokespersons of both the parties were approached for comments but they didn’t share anything.