AAMIR SAEED

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Tuesday announced that former Justice Dost Muhammad Khan will be the caretaker chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

“Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government and the opposition had sent four names to be considered for the post,” Additional Secretary of ECP Dr Akhtar Nazeer said, addressing a press conference, here. He further said the decision to appoint former judge of the supreme court as KP’s acting CM was made at a consultative meeting of the five-member commission as required under the Constitution.

According to the procedure set under the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the proposed names were forwarded to the ECP after members of the parliamentary committee failed to reach a consensus as both the sides continued to stick to their nominees. The commission is bound to announce the decision within two days after receiving the names from the respective parliamentary committees.

Dost Muhammad Khan will take oath as the sixth interim chief minister of the province. He was appointed as a Supreme Court justice in 2014 and retired on March 19 last after completing his tenure.

Earlier, the KP chief minister and opposition leader referred the matter to the parliamentary committee constituted to finalize the name of caretaker chief minister, but it too failed to do so.

Former chief minister of KP Pervez Khattak had recommended bureaucrats Himayatullah Khan and Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi, while Leader of the Opposition Maulana Lutfur Rehman had proposed the names of Manzoor Khan Afridi and Justice Dost Muhammad Khan (retd).

Earlier, the PTI had agreed on the name of Manzoor Afridi for the caretaker chief minister and the party even released an official handout and a picture of Afridi with party chairman Imran Khan at his Bani Gala residence but the PTI chairman later reversed the decision after getting reports on the social media that Manzoor Afridi had sponsored the JUI-F campaign against the merger of Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Parliamentary committees in Punjab and Balochistan have yet to reach a consensus on caretaker chief ministers for their respective provinces after provincial governments and the opposition failed to end deadlock.

In Punjab, four names were put forth by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), including former Intelligence Bureau Director General Aftab Sultan, former Naval Chief Zakaullah, Justice Sahir Ali (retd) and former Punjab Police Inspector General Saleem Dogar. However, Sultan refused to accept the nomination for caretaker chief executive position.

The opposition in Punjab, led by the PTI, has proposed Professor Hassan Askari and analyst Ayaz Amir for the slot of caretaker chief minister.

If the parliamentary committees in Punjab and Balochistan fail to decide, the proposed names will be forwarded to the Election Commission for a final decision.