Parliamentary committee to meet today to decide caretaker KP CM

By
Qaiser Khan
KP House Islamabad. Photo: File 

PESHAWAR: The parliamentary committee formed to decide and appoint a caretaker chief minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa will meet today at KP House Islamabad.

According got former MPA from Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl, Mehmood Betani, the meeting will be held at 10pm in which discussion would be held over the appointment of government officials and caretaker chief minister.

Three representatives each from the government and JUI-F will participate in the meeting, he added.

However, Awami National Party leader Sardar Hussain Babak has raised issues over composition of the committee. Babak was of the view that former chief minister Pervez Khattak and opposition leader of the now-dissolved assembly, Lutfur-Rehman, decided the names of committee members among themselves without consulting leaders from other parties.

On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Aurangzeb Nalotha has demanded the parliamentary committee has members from all political parties.

The parliamentary committee would decide a caretaker chief minister as Khattak and Rehman could not reach a consensus on the appointment of a caretaker chief minister despite several meetings, sources said.

Sources said Khattak and Rehman, along with former speaker Asad Qaiser and Shaukat Yousafzai, met Thursday night to discuss four names for the position.

The government proposed names of former chief secretary Ejaz Ahmed Qureshi and Himayatullah Khan while the opposition insisted on appointing either Manzoor Afridi or Justice (retd) Dost Mohammad Khan.

If the parliamentary committee fails to do so, the matter would be sent to the Election Commission of Pakistan, which will announce a caretaker chief minister for the province.