Former CJP Nasirul Mulk to take over as caretaker prime minister

Fuente: 
The Express Tribune
Fecha de publicación: 
27 Mayo 2018

Former chief justice Nasirul Mulk was announced as the caretaker prime minister on Monday during a joint press conference held by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Opposition Leader Khursheed Shah.

It took the government and the opposition six meetings to decide on a name for the coveted position.

“Today is a day of great importance in the democratic run of the country. We have agreed on an individual for the position,” said the premier during the press conference.

“We have come to this decision six weeks later, and we had to discuss the nominations with our parties as well,” he added. “The individual’s history is impeccable and contribution has been outstanding.”

Speaker Ayaz Sadiq and Marriyum Aurangzeb were also present during the press conference.

PM Abbasi gave Shah the floor to announce the name. “It will be a fair transition. There were challenges, we jointly faced them and in future we will face them,” Shah said. “There were six names. Four names were under discussion. Saleem Abbas Jillani and Nasir ul Mulk had not been discussed but they were being considered. No name has been disqualified, The decision has been taken on merit and with the consnet of our parties.”

Every name was being considered, no one can show any disagreement with this name, PM Abbasi said after the announcement.

Judicial history

In 2015, Nasirul Mulk put his gavel away after a 13-month long stint as head of the country’s superior judiciary. During his short tenure, CJ Nasirul Mulk has given four historical judgments, which have strengthened democracy in the country.

Senior lawyers appreciated his role during 2014 sit-ins by the Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue. Justice Mulk was also heading the bench that had rejected the plea to disqualify PM Nawaz Sharif for lying on the floor of the National Assembly.

He was also head of Judicial Commission who probed PTI’s rigging allegations in the 2013 election. The Commission had given multiple recommendations to the Election Commission Pakistan for ensuring fair and transparent elections.

Justice Mulk, along with two other fellow judges, accepted the task of probing rigging claims in the last general elections. All the major parties praised his conduct during the proceedings of the inquiry commission. After spending 86 days, Mulk rejected the rigging allegations.

Nominations

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) proposed three prospective candidates as the caretaker prime minister: former chief justices Tassaduq Hussain Jillani and Nasirul Mulk and former governor State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Shamshad Akhtar.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) proposed names of former chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, former State Bank governor Dr Ishrat Hussain and former minister Abdul Razzaq Daud.

It differed with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) over its nominees. PPP gave names of former Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Zaka Ashraf and former foreign secretary Jalil Abbasi Jilani.

The government’s side had proposed names of former secretary of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Ishtiak Ahmad Khan and former CJPs Jawad S Khawaja and Anwar Zaheer Jamali.

The government and the opposition remained tight-lipped on the matter and were reluctant to share any details. In interactions with journalists in recent days, Shah hinted at getting elevated a “female PM”, giving rise to speculations that Maleeha Lodhi’s name may have been agreed upon.

Another female candidate whose name was under consideration was of former governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Shamshad Akhtar.

Since April 11, when Abbasi and Shah formally met for the first time to discuss the caretaker premier’s appointment, a number of names have remained under review.

These included former federal minister Abdul Razak Dawood, former CJPs Nasirul Mulk and Mian Shakirullah Jan, former Supreme Court judge Nasir Aslam Zahid and former caretaker PM Mir Hazar Khan Khoso.

The Express Tribune

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1720804/1-former-cjp-nasirul-mulk-take-reig...