Picking interim CM: Punjab governor asks Speaker Sibtain to form parliamentary committee
After the three-day deadline for the Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Parvez Elahi and Leader of the Opposition in Punjab Assembly Hamza Shahbaz failed to agree on a name for the interim chief minister, Governor Balighur Rehman directed Speaker Sibtain Khan to form a parliamentary committee to pick a name.
Rehman wrote to Sibtain on Tuesday evening after the three day deadline expired.
“Consequent to the fact that the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Provincial Assembly of the Punjab have not agreed on any person to be appointed as the care-taker Chief Minister within the stipulated time-frame,” the letter read, it added, “in terms of Article 224(1A) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, you are hereby required to fulfill your obligation in the manner prescribed in Article 224A(2) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, under intimation to the undersigned.”
Parliamentary committee
According to Article 224A(2), Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain Khan will now have to immediately create a bipartisan committee comprising equal members from the treasury and opposition benches.
This committee will now have three days to finalize a name.
Should the committee fail to agree to a name, the matter would be sent to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
224A (2). Resolution by Committee or Election Commission
In case a Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in the outgoing Provincial Assembly do not agree on any person to be appointed as the care-taker Chief Minister, within three days of the dissolution of that Assembly, they shall forward two nominees each to a Committee to be immediately constituted by the Speaker of the Provincial Assembly, comprising six members of the outgoing Provincial Assembly having equal representation from the Treasury and the Opposition, to be nominated by the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition respectively.
(3) The Committee constituted under clause (1) or (2) shall finalize the name of the care-taker Prime Minister or care-taker Chief Minister, as the case may be, within three days of the referral of the matter to it.
(4) The incumbent Prime Minister and the incumbent Chief Minister shall continue to hold office till appointment of the care-taker Prime Minister and the care-taker Chief Minister, as the case may be.
(5) Notwithstanding anything contained in clauses (1) and (2), if the members of the Opposition are less than five in the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) and less than four in any Provincial Assembly, then all of them shall be members of the Committee mentioned in the aforesaid clauses and the Committee shall be deemed to be duly constituted.
