Interim PM slot: Govt given go-ahead for formal talks with opposition

Negotiations between PM and Ch Nisar might begin in two weeks.

ISLAMABAD:

Talks between the government and opposition aimed at choosing an interim premier are expected to pick momentum, as the president has given the green light for formal negotiations, which have so far been taking place through backchannels.

Officials in the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) told The Express Tribune on Sunday that President Asif Ali Zardari had authorised Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf to formalise ongoing talks with the main opposition party for the key slot to hold parliamentary elections.

According to sources in the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), negotiations between Prime Minister Ashraf and opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan might begin within two weeks.

Under the 20th Const-itutional Amendment, approved by parliament early this year, the premier and the opposition leader are authorised to propose two names each for the key slot and hold talks to zero in on one candidate.

Last week, Nisar announced that the PML-N had shortlisted nine nominees for the slot of interim prime minister and would further cut the list to two, after consulting fellow opposition parties, both in and outside parliament.

A senior PPP leader confirmed to The Express Tribune that the ruling group was also internally choosing candidates for the top position, and would soon take its allies into confidence.

“We are engaged in the process but, like we always do, it will be disclosed once things get matured,” said PPP Secretary General Jahangir Badar. He refused to reveal the names of the possible PPP candidates, saying that President Zardari would have the final word.

Badar added that the process might take at least three to four months before the interim setup takes over and elections are announced.

“Expect it in January,” Badar said, about the anticipated date of bringing in the interim set up.

Another PPP leader, however, said the formal process of consultations between the two parties had already started.

According to the leader, who did not want to be named, Nisar and PML-N Senator Ishaq Dar proposed the names of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) chief Mahmoud Khan Achakzai and Balochistan National Party (BNP) head Sardar Akhtar Mengal for the interim premier.

However, Religious Affairs Minister Syed Khursheed Shah, who is spearheading informal talks on behalf of the PPP, had rejected the two names, arguing that both Achakzai and Mengal had political affiliations and ambitions.

The PPP leadership, the official added, was expected to take a final decision over its nominees at a dinner President Zardari was expected to host in honour of former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani’s son, either on Monday or Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the PML-N, meanwhile, rejected that any name was shared with the PPP leadership, saying the process was still in its initial stage and the main opposition party was still consulting fellow groups.

“I don’t think things have gone that far … the process has just begun and there are still three to four months before we finalise it,” said Senator Pervaiz Rasheed, adding that the interim setup might take over in December.

Asked if this was what was on the mind of the principal opposition party, Rasheed said: “It is on everybody’s mind.”

About when the two parties would formalise their talks, the senator asserted, “There is no concept of informal things in politics … everything has to be formal and we are on it.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 3^rd, 2012.