ECP to decide names of caretaker CMs Punjab, Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will nominate the chief ministers (CMs) of Punjab and Balochistan as the parliamentary committees of both the assemblies have failed to reach a consensus.

The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza has convened the ECP consultative meeting here on Thursday to make consultation on the four proposed names for CM Punjab, which were referred by Speaker Punjab Assembly to the ECP that included Prof Hassan Askari Rizvi and Ayaz Ameer from former opposition and Admiral (retd) Muhammad Zakaullah and Justice (retd) Muhammad Sahir Ali from former provincial government.

The matter of nominating caretaker CM Punjab has been referred to the ECP after the failure of parliamentary committee that met today to reach consensus over the proposed candidates, rather both former government and opposition levelled charges on each other in failing to reach consensus by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

PTI had proposed the names of news analyst Ayaz Ameer and Defence analyst Dr Hassan Askari Rizvi for the post of caretaker CM while the PML-N had nominated Admiral Muhammad Zakaullah and Justice (retd) Muhammad Sahir Ali.

Similarly, in Balochistan the former provincial government had suggested the names of Sardar Shoukat Popalzai and Alauddin Marri for the post of the caretaker chief minister while the former opposition had nominated Mohammad Aslam Bhutani and Ashraf Jahangir Qazi.

After failure of former government and opposition leaders, the parliamentary committee of Balochistan also failed to reach on one name for caretaker CM for Balochistan.

Under legal condition, after failure in reaching consensus of former CMs and leaders of opposition in Balochistan and Punjab and also failure of parliamentary committees of both provinces, now the ECP will decide the names of caretaker CMs of both the provinces.

After expiry of tenure of both provincial assemblies on May 31 , the former CMs and Opposition leaders had timeframe upto June 3 to make consensus on one name for caretaker CM. Later the parliamentary committee had timeframe upto June 6 to finalize one name and then the ECP will have timeframe from June 7 (Thursday) to June 8 to decide the name of caretaker CMs.