Former Pak chief justice Mulk to be caretaker PM
Former chief justice Nasir-ul-Mulk has been named Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister to oversee the general elections 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 Ahmed Shah.
The announcement ends weeks of wrangling between Abbasi’s ruling PML-N 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.”
Mulk took oath as the 22nd chief justice in 2014. He belongs to Mingora, Swat. His father Kamran Khan was a businessman known for his philanthropic work in Swat.
He is remembered for the way he conducted a contempt case against then prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. He convicted the then chief executive for 30 seconds
ISLAMABAD:
while maintaining the dignity and honour of the court, and left the disqualification issue open to the Election Commission and the 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 Gen Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency and forcibly sent the judges home.
He later joined the judiciary on September 20, 2008 under the Naek formula when he took a fresh oath as a judge of the Supreme Court.
Mulk, who also served as the interim chief of the Election Commission of Pakistan, will head a technocratic government until elections as the current government and parliament will be dissolved on Thursday.