The six-member Punjab Parliamentary Committee which had earlier failed to reach agreement on the name of a caretaker chief minister finally reached on Tuesday a consensus and announced the name of Najam Sethi as the caretaker chief minister of Punjab. Sethi was a Minister for Political Affairs & Accountability in the Mairaj Khalid-led interim Federal Government in 1996-97.
Former Law Minister Rana Sanaullah termed Sethi as a man of integrity and expected that he would promote democracy and constitutionalism in the country. PML-N had consulted its allied parties on the choice of caretaker chief minister earlier. It took them into confidence while agreeing to Sethi's name.
The Parliamentary committee had considered the names of former Justice Amir Raza, Khawja Zaheer, former Justice Syed Zahid Hussain and journalist Najam Sethi for caretaker chief minister slot. The Committee while declaring Sethi as caretaker CM acknowledged that all members whose names were put before it were highly respectable and capable people. Sethi, a journalist by profession has been arrested a number of times in his career.
Sethi showed determination to hold free and fair elections and uphold rule of constitution in the province. Sethi, an award-winning Pakistani journalist has been editor-in-chief of a Lahore-based political weekly, and the Anchor/Analyst of a private TV channel.
Sethi, 64, graduated, from Government College, Lahore, Pakistan, in 1967. He was awarded the Presidents Gold Medal for standing first among 50,000 students of Punjab University. He took an MA degree in Economics from Cambridge University, UK, in 1970 and was awarded the Davies Prize for Economics by Clare College. He was a PhD research student at Clare College from 1971 to 1972.
He is the Editor-in-Chief of The Friday Times, and the former Founding Editor-in-Chief of Daily Times and Daily Aajkal and former Editor-in-Chief of another private TV. He has been the Pakistan Correspondent of The Economist, London, since 1990, and of The Economist Intelligence Unit from 1999-2005.
He is also a publisher. Sethi has served as Senior Vice President of the Council of Pakistan Newspaper Editors, and is on the standing committee of the All Pakistan Newspapers Society. In 2008, he was unanimously elected Secretary-General of the South Asia Media Commission. He is a regular commentator for various international radio and TV channels. He is a frequent speaker at international conferences.
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