Daily Times

Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser Wednesday wrote letters to Prime Minister Imran Khan and Leader of the Opposition Shahbaz Sharif for appointment of a caretaker prime minister.

The speaker has written these letters under the powers assigned to him as per Article 224A-1 of the Constitution.

Names of four members have been sought from both the leaders for formation of the parliamentary committee.

Earlier this week, President Arif Alvi had sent letters to PM Imran Khan and Shahbaz Sharif seeking suggestions for appointment of a caretaker prime minister. However, both leaders failed to reach consensus.

According to the NA rules, in case the two politicians can’t reach a consensus on one name within three days, each of them will send two names to the parliamentary committee responsible for appointing a caretaker prime minister.

The eight-member parliamentary committee, comprising National Assembly and Senate members, with equal representation from the government and opposition, will be formed by the NA speaker.

“224A (1) In case, the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing National Assembly do not agree on any person to be appointed as the caretaker prime minister, within three days of the dissolution of the National Assembly, they shall forward two nominees each to a Committee to be immediately constituted by the Speaker of the National Assembly, comprising eight members of the outgoing National Assembly, or the Senate, or both, having equal representation from the Treasury and the Opposition, to be nominated by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, respectively,” Qaiser wrote in the letter.

Shahbaz will now nominate four members from the opposition and Imran Khan will nominate an equal number of members from the treasury benches.