The appointment of Justice (retd) Arshad Hussain Shah as the caretaker chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was challenged in Peshawar High Court on Tuesday.

The petitioner Wali Khan Afridi and Advocate Shah Faisal Ilyas in their plea said that the appointment of a new interim CM was against the constitution as Mahmood Khan and Akram Khan Durrani finalised the name, who was not a chief minister and opposition leader, respectively.

Justice (retd) Arshad Hussain Shah was sworn in as the new caretaker chief minister in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in a ceremony in Peshawar on November 12 after a consensus between the stakeholders.

The petitioners said that the governor and the Election Commission were required to appoint the caretaker CM after consultation if there were no chief minister and opposition leader.

For them, names should have been forwarded by the governor to the ECP who would appoint the interim chief minister.

They pleaded before the court to declare CM Shah’s appointment illegal and stop the caretaker cabinet from working.

In the petition, they made caretaker CM, ECP, advocate general, secretary law, former CM Mahmood Khan, and former opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani as parties.

Justice (retd) Shah was appointed the interim CM after former bureaucrat and Azam Khan passed away on November 11. He was 89. With Khan’s death, his cabinet was also automatically dissolved.