Committee still indecisive on Punjab caretaker CM
26 March, 2013
LAHORE: The parliamentary committee for selection of caretaker chief minister in Punjab remains at a standstill, as both the treasury and opposition parties, the PML-N and PPP, have yet to reach a consensus.
The two would continue the meeting today to resolve the issue, but insiders of both the parties are of the view that the deadlock would not break in the next meeting, as both parties are unwilling to retreat from their stance, and the issue would be sent to the election commission. For the caretaker Punjab chief minister, the PML-N had suggested two names, that of Justice (r) Amer Raza Khan and former bureaucrat Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed, while the opposition PPP and PML-Q nominated Justice (r) Zahid Husain and renowned journalist Najam Sethi.
The parliamentary committee comprising PML-N's Rana Sanaullah, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman and Iqbal Chunnar, and the opposition's Zulfiqar Gondal, Shaukat Basra, and Chaudhry Zaheeruddin held its second meeting on Monday but it ended without any result. The next, third and final meeting would be held today (Tuesday) and if the two sides fail not agree on a single candidate for the slot of caretaker CM, the issue would be sent to the election commission who will take a final decision and announce the caretaker chief minister of Punjab the next day.
After the meeting, opposition's Chaudhry Zaheer, who chaired the meeting on Monday, told media that although both sides have discussed the four nominees for the chief minister in detail but they have not reached a final decision. He expressed hope both the sides would reach agreement in the next meeting of the committee.
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