Amending the order: PM appoints caretaker CM for G-B

Will conduct polls of legislative assembly


Our Correspondent December 10, 2014

ISLAMABAD:


Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday appointed Sher Jahan Mir as Gilgit Baltistan’s caretaker chief minister after making amendments in ‘Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self-Rule Order 2009’. He is appointed as caretaker chief minister to hold the next elections of the legislative assembly.


The G-B’s incumbent Legislative Assembly completed its five-year tenure on Tuesday.

There was no provision for forming the caretaker government in the G-B under, the G-B Empowerment and Self-Rule Order 2009, which was previously introduced by the outgoing Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) government in 2009.



The power to amend the G-B-Empowerment and Self Rule-2009 Order rests with president of Pakistan, who amended it on the recommendation of the prime minister.

Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan had sent a summary in this regard to the Prime Minister’s Office, recommending the amendment in the order to pave the way for setting up of a caretaker government.

According a notification, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan Muhammad Birjis Tahir after consultation with the G-B Chief Minister Syed Mahdi Shah and Leader of Opposition in the G-B’s Legislative Assembly Haji Janbaz Khan, sent the name of Sher Jahan Mir to the PM for his appointment as caretaker chief minister.



The caretaker chief minister has been appointed for three months and he will form his cabinet and hold elections in the region in three months. Mir will be the G-B’s first ever caretaker chief minister as there was no such tradition in the past to form a caretaker government for holding elections.

The newly appointed chief minister will take oath within a couple of days.

Sher Jahan Mir is professionally a banker, heading the Karakorum Cooperative Bank for decades, who became famous in the region due to success of his bank. The bank was established in 1956, under the Cooperative Societies Act, 1925. Karakoram Bank is the first and only G-B based bank.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2014.

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