EXCHIEF JUSTICE NAMED PAK’S CARETAKER PM
NASIR-UL-MULK WILL HOLD OFFICE UNTIL THE GENERAL ELECTIONS ON JULY 25
ISLAMABAD: Former chief justice Nasir-ul-Mulk has been named Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister to oversee the general election scheduled for July 25.
“No Pakistani can lift a finger (against) such a name,” outgoing Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told reporters on Monday, seated next to opposition leader Syed Khurshid Shah.
The announcement ended weeks of wrangling between Abbasi’s ruling PML-N party and Shah’s Pakistan People’s Party.
“No one’s name was discarded,” Shah told the media. “We have chosen his name on the basis of merit. We took our parties into confidence and decided upon this name. Every name was discussed, and this name was decided upon. It’s a name no one can point fingers at.”
Nasir-ul-Mulk took oath as the 22nd chief justice in 2014. He belongs to Mingora town in Swat. His father Kamran Khan was a businessman known for his philanthropic work in the region.
He is remembered for the way he conducted a contempt case against then prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. He convicted the chief executive for 30 seconds on a charge of contempt while maintaining the dignity and honour of the court, and left the issue of Gilani’s disqualification to the Election Commission and then Speaker of the National Assembly, Fehmida Mirza.
Mulk is one of the seven judges who signed a restraining order on November 3, 2007, when military ruler Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency and forcibly sent the judges home.
He later rejoined the judiciary on September 20, 2008, when he took a fresh oath as a judge of the Supreme Court with his seniority intact.
Mulk, who also served as interim chief of the Election Commission, will head a technocratic government until elections as the current government and Parliament will be dissolved on Thursday.