Justice (R) Dost Muhammad Khan appointed as caretaker CM KP
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PESHAWAR: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday named Justice (r) Dost Muhammad Khan for the post of caretaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa chief minister.
Addressing a press conference following a consultative meeting outside ECP office in Islamabad, ECP Additional Secretary Dr Akhtar Nazeer said that the KP government and opposition had sent the commission four names to be considered for the post.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) had proposed Justice Khan’s name along with businessman Manzoor Afridi, whereas PTI had suggested the names of two bureaucrats Ijaz Qureshi and Hamayatullah Khan.
The matter to finalise the name for the interim slot was forwarded to the electoral watchdog after a parliamentary committee constituted by former KP Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser, comprising Shah Farman, Atif Khan and Mehmood Khan from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Noor Saleem Khan, Mehmood Khan Betani and Mufti Fazal Ghafoor of the JUI-F representing the opposition, failed to reach consensus on the issue.
The opposition and government resorted to forming the committee following consistent disagreements between them. Although the KP government completed its five-year tenure on May 28 and the provincial law department issued a notification dissolving the assembly, the name of caretaker chief minister remained in limbo after PTI’s withdrawal of Manzoor Afridi’s nomination for the interim slot.
The PTI had agreed on the name of Manzoor Afridi for the caretaker chief minister and the party even released an official handout and a picture of Afridi with party chairman Imran Khan at his Banigala residence.
However, within 24 hours, the PTI reversed its decision and withdrew the name of Afridi. The opposition parties in the KP Assembly had alleged that then chief minister Pervez Khattak and the JUI-F leaders had received huge amounts from Manzoor Afridi for his nomination as the chief minister.
