President Arif Alvi has signed a summary for the appointment of Anwaarul Haq Kakar as the caretaker prime minister of Pakistan after the outgoing premier and the leader of the opposition agreed on Kakar’s name on the final day of the three-day consultation period.
The president approved the summary under Article 224(1A) of the Constitution which deals with the appointment of interim prime minister.
Earlier, Leader of the Opposition Raja Riaz announced that he and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had reached an agreement to appoint Anwaarul Haq Kakar as the caretaker prime minister of Pakistan.
Kakar is from Balochistan and is a co-founder of the Balochistan Awami Party, which is known by its acronym of BAP.
Riaz told reporters after his meeting with Shehbaz that they wanted someone from a smaller province to be appointed the caretaker prime minister.
He announced the name on the final day of the three-day consultation period.
The nomination was signed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif to President Arif Alvi, said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
It merits here to mention that Kakar would be the first person to take responsibility as the interim prime minister from Balochistan. He is expected to take the oath of office Sunday (tomorrow).
Anwaar ul Haq Kakar is a member of the Senate of Pakistan since March 2018. He belongs to Quetta. His political career began in 2002 when he contested the election for a National Assembly seat on the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ticket. But he lost.
Kakar was elected to the Senate as an independent candidate on a general seat from Balochistan and took oath as Senator on 12 March 2018.
He co-launched a new political party Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) in 2018 when Balochistan went into a political overhaul.
The announcement by Riaz confirm reports aired by Aaj News on Friday that the coalition parties had developed a consensus on appointing the caretake PM from Balochistan.
Aaj News has already reported in recent weeks that BAP is expected to merge with the PMLN, which will likely form the next government in the province after the general elections.
The meeting lasted for an hour. Sources within PML-N said that the party refused Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani’s name for the slot.
Names of Ishaq Dar and Jalil Abbas Jilani were discussed during the meeting, they added.
Former information minister Marriyum Aurangzeb also shared the development in a social media post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement and coalition partners in the previous government decided on Friday to have the caretaker prime minister from a small province.
PM Shehbaz Sharif and President Arif Alvi agreed to disagree on Friday over the name of the caretaker prime minister.
The premier told reporters in an informal conversation that wondered why President Alvi was in a hurry over the caretaker setup, saying that the constitution allowed him eight days to name a caretaker prime minister.
He added that the president should have consulted the Constitution before writing to him. Earlier in the day, President Alvi had written a letter to Shehbaz telling him that the caretaker PM must be nominated in consultation with the leader of the opposition within three days of the dissolution of the assembly under Article 224A of the Constitution.
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Under the constitution and tradition, the outgoing primer and the lead of the opposition propose three names each for the caretaker prime minister slot.
The consultation may last up to three days, the maximum allowed under the Constitution.
Under the Constitution, they have three days to reach an agreement on a caretaker. If they can’t, the decision will go to a parliamentary committee. The Election Commission of Pakistan will decide if the committee fails to decide.
The lower house of Parliament was dissolved on Wednesday, three days before the end of its five-year term on Aug. 12.
A general election in the South Asian country of 241 million people should be held in 90 days but it could be delayed for several months if the country’s top electoral authority seeks more time to redraw the boundaries of hundreds of constituencies based on a new census data which was recently approved by the Council of Common Interests.
Many leaders in the ruling alliance have called for timely elections despite the CCI’s decision.
The parliamentary tenure of the coalition government, which came after the ouster of the-then prime minister Imran Khan via a vote of no-confidence, ended on Wednesday.
Khan has been at the heart of months of political turmoil since he was ousted, raising new worries about stability. He has since been jailed in connection with a graft case and has, as a result, been barred from taking part in an election for five years.
