Khyber Pakhtunkhwa cabinet stands dissolved after former bureaucrat and Caretaker Chief Minister Azam Khan passed away on Saturday.

“His [Khan] cabinet will be dissolved immediately after his death. It is now the responsibility of the governor to invoke Article 224 of the Constitution,” legal expert Hafiz Ihsan told Aaj News.

Article 224 empowers the president of Pakistan to appoint a caretaker prime minister and authorises governors to appoint interim CMs of provinces, he added.

Ihsan said that the cabinet is automatically dissolved in all three conditions; if a vote of no-confidence is successful against the CM, he resigns from his post or passes away.

“If this was a routine matter, then the assembly would have elected its leader of the house. However, there is no assembly at the moment as the provincial assembly was dissolved in January,” he added.

For Ihsan, the governor of KP will have to appoint the caretaker chief minister invoking Article 224 of the Constitution.

“When the KP assembly was dissolved on January 18, the leader of the house and opposition of that time agreed on the name of the caretaker chief minister,” he said.

However, there is no leader of the house and leader of the opposition, he said, adding that the only option right now is to invoke Article 224.

“I believe it will be better for the province that the governor take the outgoing chief minister and opposition leader onboard in the process and hold informal discussions with them,” Ihsan said.