Election Commission to select caretaker prime minister today

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan on Sunday (today) will pick up a name from the list of four nominees for the post of caretaker prime minister as the politicians failed to hammer out consensus on a name for the post.

Justice Riaz Kiani, ECP member from Punjab, said on Saturday that the electoral body would decide the issue till Sunday afternoon.

Task of selecting the caretaker prime minister was assigned to the Election Commission after Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar and later an eight-member parliamentary committee failed in reaching a consensus.

Prime minster and opposition leader and the parliamentary committee had three days each to select a caretaker prime minister from the list that includes names of Dr Ishrat Hussain, Justice (retd) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid and Rasool Bux Paleejo.

The Election Commission of Pakistan which has two days to decide the matter could not select the caretaker prime minister on the first day as its member from Sindh Roshan Esani could not reach Islamabad where the meeting of the electoral body was held.

Kiani said that the meeting had discussed the four names and the decision would be made till Sunday. KPK ECP member Justice (retd) Shahzad Akbar said that the Election Commission wanted to take the decision unanimously.