Caretaker premier: Achakzai emerges as PML-N’s favourite

PkMAP chief meets with Nawaz Sharif, discusses political matters.

LAHORE:

Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chairman Mahmood Khan Achakzai has become the candidate of choice for the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) to run the caretaker set-up before the next parliamentary election, The Express Tribune has learnt.

This emerged after a meeting between a PkMAP delegation, headed by Achakzai, with Nawaz Sharif and other senior PML-N leaders at Raiwind on Wednesday.

The two sides discussed the makeup of the interim set-up and Nawaz asked Achakzai whether he objected to his name being put forward as a candidate, according to sources privy to the meeting.

Achakzai endorsed PML-N’s nomination list which also included his name, expressing in clear terms that if he was given the chance, then he would try and serve the country to the best of his abilities.

Sharif informed Achakzai that the PML-N would include his name as one of the two candidates in the final list for the slot of caretaker prime minister, which would be forwarded to the incumbent Prime Minister, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.

The PML-N had earlier finalised seven names for a caretaker prime minister, including Achakzai, Attaullah Khan Mengal, Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid, Rasool Buksh Palejo, former Supreme Court Bar Association president Asma Jahangir, Justice (retd) Shakirullah Jan and Qazi Hussain Ahmad.

The party has officially forwarded these names to the opposition parties for consultation, following which it will finalise two names for the caretaker premier slot.

After meeting with Achakzai, Nawaz gave the go ahead to the party’s senior leadership to include his name in the final list. They added that the PML-N chief asked Achakzai to begin talks with the heads of political parties to get their approval of his nomination as the caretaker prime minister.

Political alliance in Balochistan

According to the PML-N’s think tank, the party has assessed that if contesting alone, it would succeed in winning only five seats out of a total of 14 seats allocated to Balochistan in the National Assembly. However, if it formed an alliance with other political parties in Balochsitan, it could potentially win 11 seats.

According to the participants of the meeting, the PkMAP usually wins around five seats from the Pashtun-dominated belt in Balochistan in the NA. Although the JUI-F is the principle opponent of the PkMAP in this belt, the PML-N will support PkMAP candidates.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 27^th, 2012.