From Abid Usman
LAHORE: Punjab opposition leader Hamza Shehbaz on Tuesday nominat-ed Mohsin Naqvi and Ahad Cheema for the caretaker Chief Minister’s posi-tion.
The PTI and the PML-Q had on Sunday finalized three consensus candi-dates as their nominees for the appointment of a caretaker chief minister in the province. The nominees included Cabinet Secretary Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera, former health minister Naseer Khan and former chief secretary Nasir Saeed Khosa.
In a letter sent to Punjab Governor Balighur Rehman, Hamza disapproved of the nominees proposed by outgoing Chief Minister Parvez Elahi. Hamza said that since he was abroad, he was appointing prime minister’s spokes-person Malik Ahmed Khan to coordinate the CM issue.
The development came hours after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif con-sulted with the government’s coalition partners to discuss the PML-N’s nominees for Punjab caretaker chief minister.
In a tweet, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the prem-ier had spoken to PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari, Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl emir Maulana Fazlur Rehman as well as Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) President Chaudhry Shujaat on the phone. Au-rangzeb said PM Shehbaz also discussed the country’s overall political situ-ation with the politicians.
Speaking to the media in Lahore, PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry said that the names proposed by the PML-N were “non-serious”. “It is a joke if they have proposed these names but they haven’t been communicated to us,” he said, adding that the names proposed by the PTI and the PML-Q were “serious”.
“We think that consensus should be developed on those names.” Fawad noted how Malik Ahmed had stated earlier that flexibility could be demon-strated with regards to the names suggested by the PTI.
In an apparent reference to reports claiming that Khosa had refused to take up the mantle of caretaker CM, Fawad said: “I request Nasir Khosa to change his mind. This will be his contribution to Pakistan. I can imagine that it is a difficult thing Nasir Khosa and Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera both are very credible names.” He said the country’s entire bureaucracy was well aware of the reputation of the two.
