Former judge is named caretaker Pakistan Pm
islamabad — Pakistan on Monday appointed former chief justice Nasirul Mulk as caretaker prime minister until a general election on July 25 which is expected to usher in the secondever democratic transition in the nuclear armed nation of 208 million people.
The interim administration does not usually make any major decisions until the new government is elected, though it may be forced to act to shore up the economy amid a worsening macroeconomic outlook.
Monday’s appointment, announced by premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, comes amid growing political and economic instability, and ends weeks of wrangling between Abbasi’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party and the opposition.
“No Pakistani can lift a finger (against) such a name,” Abbasi told reporters, seated next to Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah, who led talks for the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Unlike the run-ups to the previous two elections, which were marred by frequent attacks by militants, Pakistan has seen a sharp decline in militancy over the past few years.
But allegations of interference by the powerful, coup-prone military are rife ahead of the election, with the PML-N accusing the military of trying to weaken it.
The military, which has ruled Pakistan for about half its history since independence in 1947, denies meddling in politics.
Mulk, who also served as the interim chief of the Election Commission of Pakistan, will head a technocratic government after the current government and parliament are dissolved on Thursday.
Issues Mulk and his team will have to contend with, though briefly, range from international isolation and strained ties with the United States to nursing the economy which is increasingly relying on Chinese loans to stay afloat. —
islamabad — Pakistan’s ruling and opposition parties on Monday announced the appointment of a former Supreme Court chief justice as caretaker prime minister.
The selection of Nasirul Mulk comes days after the country’s president announced that general elections will be held on July 25 — setting up what would only be Pakistan’s second ever democratic transfer of power.
“Today is an important day in the democratic history of Pakistan, the name was chosen after consensus was reached,” said Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during a press conference.
“We have chosen a person whose past is very clear.”
Opposition leader Khursheed Shah added that Mulk, who served on the top court for nearly a decade — including a stint as chief justice from July 2014 to August 2015 — had backing across the political spectrum.
Mulk famously helped pave the way for the removal of former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani after he was convicted for contempt in 2012 for refusing to ask Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against then president Asif Ali Zardari.
Imran Khan, the country’s popular opposition lawmaker and former cricket star who aspires to become Pakistan’s prime minister after the July elections, also welcomed Mulk’s appointment. Khan has been leading rallies and fighting legal battles against the Pakistan Muslim League since 2013.
The appointment of the widely respected judge came as a surprise because he was not named as a potential frontrunner in recent discussions in the Pakistani press about who would take the helm as caretaker premier.
The current government’s tenure will end on May 31. Power will then be handed over to a caretaker administration after the parliament is dissolved until a new government is formed following elections.
The July polls will bring to a head political tensions that have been mounting since former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted by the Supreme Court on corruption charges last July and later barred from politics for life.
Sharif was the 15th prime minister in Pakistan’s seven-decade history to be ousted before finishing a full term.