Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Leader of the Opposition Raja Riaz in the dissolved National Assembly on Saturday agreed to nominate Anwaar ul Haq Kakar as the Caretaker Prime Minister. The decision was taken during a consultation meeting held in the PM House. The consultation process for the appointment of the caretaker prime minister was amicably completed, the PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.
The prime minister and the leader of the opposition jointly signed the advice for the appointment of the caretaker PM and sent it to the President of Pakistan, it was added.
On the occasion, the prime minister thanked the leader of the opposition for his role in the parliament during the last 16 months and the cooperation extended in the consultation process. Later, President Dr Arif Alvi signed the summary to approve the appointment of Anwaar-ul-Haq as the caretaker Prime Minister under Article 224(1A) of the Constitution, at Aiwan-e-Sadr. Earlier, a summary containing the advice of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was sent to the President House after the prime minister and opposition leader Raja Riaz, of the outgoing National Assembly, agreed on the nomination of Senator Kakar and jointly signed the summary.
Anwaarul Haq Kakar was elected as an independent senator from Balochistan province for a tenure of March 2018 to March 2024 in the general seat.
He was also working as chairperson Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resource Development and as a member of the Business Advisory Committee, Finance and Revenue, Foreign Affairs and Science and Technology.
Kakar had co-launched a political party Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and also served as spokesman for the government of Balochistan.
The consultation process for the nomination of the caretaker prime minister commenced after the president approved the dissolution of the National Assembly (NA) on August 9, on the advice of the prime minister.
The prime minister’s advice had sought dissolution of the assembly under Article 58(1) of the Constitution. On 11 August, the president also wrote a letter to the prime minister and the opposition leader of the outgoing Assembly to propose the name of a suitable person for
T he appointment of caretaker PM under Article 224 (1A) of the Constitution. The outcome of meeting thus paves the way for the transition of government to a caretaker set-up. The proposed caretaker prime minister is expected to take oath of his office soon after which he would announce his caretaker cabinet in a run-up to the next general elections.