APRIL 4, 2022
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek e-Insaaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Monday proposed the name of former chief justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed for the office of the caretaker prime minister.
Gulzar was part of a five-judge bench that disqualified former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Panama Papers case. His name was nominated at a core committee meeting of PTI chaired by Imran.
“I propose the name of Justice (retd) Gulzar Ahmed, former chief justice of Pakistan, to be considered for appointment as the caretaker prime minister,” read a letter sent by Imran to the president.
Gulzar’s nomination followed a letter of Pakistan president Arif Alvi to Imran and leader of the opposition in the National Assembly (NA) Shehbaz Sharif, seeking suggestions for the appointment of a caretaker prime minister. In another development, a handout issued by the president’s office read that Imran Khan will continue as the prime minister, despite being de-notified as the chief executive, till the appointment of a caretaker prime minister
In case Imran and Shehbaz fail to reach a consensus over a name within three days, each one of them will send two names to an eight-member parliamentary committee to be formed by the NA speaker. The committee will comprise outgoing NA members, or those from the Senate, or both, with equal representation from the treasury and opposition benches.
Shehbaz, however, declared that he would not take part in the process and termed it “illegal”. He said that the president and the prime minister had broken the law and questioned how they could approach the opposition.
The president had dissolved the assembly on Imran’s advice shortly after deputy speaker Qasim Suri nullified a no-confidence motion against the prime minister.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf resigned on Monday amid the ongoing political and constitutional crisis in the coup-prone country. “Today, I leave extremely satisfied and content, most of all because I know that the NSA’s office and the NSD are vibrant institutions with an exceptional team that will continue to make Pakistan proud,” he tweeted.
Courtesy/Source: TOI
