Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Mian Mahmoodur Rasheed are likely to meet today for finalizing the care taker set up to be installed in the province after expiry of present government's five year tenure with effect from 1st June 2018 for two months for the sole purpose of holding general elections, to be held in late July this year.
Earlier Shahbaz Sharif had declined to hold consultation with the leader of the opposition and asked him to hold a meeting with Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Iqbal and Law Minister Rana Sanaullah. However, Rasheed had refused to meet the two, saying it was the chief minister's constitutional duty to consult the opposition leader and discuss matters related to the caretaker chief minister.
It is learnt that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has finalized three names including former bureaucrat Tariq Khosa, former Punjab Finance Minister Shahid Kardar and former Federal Finance Minister Salman Shah as the opposition's candidate for caretaker chief minister.
Although article 224-A of the Constitution does not mention the role of the governor in the installation of a caretaker set-up yet Punjab governor Rafique Rajwana a true democrat and an eminent jurist from Multan is likely to play a pivotal role in the formation of a caretaker set-up, and creation of harmony among all political parties.
It may be added that that Pakistan's election commission has proposed July 25-27 as possible dates for holding general elections in the country. There are total of 342 seats in the National Assembly. (Punjab 140) Of these, 272 are filled by direct elections. In addition, the Pakistani Constitution reserves 10 seats for religious minorities and 60 seats for women, to be filled by proportional representation among parties with more than 5% of the vote.
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