PESHAWAR:
Justice (retd) Arshad Hussain Shah was appointed because the caretaker chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa on Sunday, following the dying of former CM Azam Khan a day prior.
He’s anticipated to take oath later at present amid contentions over the appointment.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) provincial chapter mentioned it intends to strategy the courts in opposition to the interim CM’s appointment, reported Specific Information.
Talking to the media on Sunday, PTI chief and former Ok-P MPA Zahir Shah Toru mentioned that the appointment of the interim chief minister by Khan and Durrani was unacceptable as neither chief presently holds the place of CM or opposition chief.
The province had plunged right into a constitutional disaster on Saturday as the cupboard stood dissolved after the demise of former caretaker CM Azam Khan, who succumbed to ailing well being.
The governance of the province was briefly handed over to Governor Haji Ghulam Ali, who wrote to former CM Mahmood Khan – a constitutional consultee within the preliminary appointment of the interim CM – and opposition chief Akram Khan Durrani, inviting them to start session below Article 224 (1A) of the Structure for the subsequent CM’s appointment.
Learn Interim Ok-P cupboard dissolved after CM Azam’s demise
A gathering was subsequently held between Khan and Durrani after which the abstract proposing Justice (retd) Shah’s title was forwarded to the governor, who later permitted it.
Justice (retd) Shah has beforehand served because the chief justice of the Supreme Appellate Courtroom Gilgit-Baltistan and was the regulation minister within the deceased CM’s interim cupboard.
In accordance with Specific Information, CM Azam Khan’s cupboard can be reinstated below Justice (retd) Shah with the identical members serving as ministers, particular advisers and deputy ministers.
Authorized considerations
The method of appointing a brand new caretaker chief minister had raised authorized complexities as it’s the first occasion of such a case.
In accordance with sources throughout the Election Fee of Pakistan (ECP), the duty of appointing the brand new caretaker chief minister falls on both the previous chief minister or the opposition chief.
The urgency to make this appointment stemmed from the constitutional significance of the place as the pinnacle of the province.
Within the occasion of a disagreement, the matter would have been escalated to the ECP for decision.
Former advocate common Shumail Ahmad Butt defined that Article 224A of the Structure dictated the joint appointment of the caretaker chief minister by the CM and the opposition chief.
He elaborated that the Chief of the Home and the Chief of the Opposition should attain an settlement inside three days. In case of a impasse within the decision-making course of, the matter will then be referred to a committee or on to the ECP.
Learn Extra Ok-P caretaker ministers resign en masse
Nonetheless, Butt highlighted a constitutional nuance, saying that the Structure offered a process for appointing just one caretaker chief minister and never successive appointments.
Alternatively, some consultants had puzzled whether or not they would see former CM Mahmood Khan and opposition chief Durrani stand within the race once more.
Caretaker Federal Minister for Data and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi maintained, nevertheless, that there was no disaster and the process given within the Structure could be adopted.
There is no such thing as a room for hypothesis, he wrote on X, on Saturday.
The spirit of the structure is crystal clear and shall be adopted within the letter and the spirit of the constitutional scheme, after the unhappy demise of the Chief Minister of KP. The Governor, the Chief Secretary and the whole provincial authorities shall carry out their duties…
— Murtaza Solangi (@murtazasolangi) November 11, 2023
Azam Khan, 89-year-old retired bureaucrat, had handed away earlier on Saturday morning.
He was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Rehman Medical Institute (RMI) in Peshawar on Friday evening, reportedly over complaints of chest ache. He was a coronary heart affected person and was dropped at the hospital in a vital situation, it was revealed.
Azam Khan served because the caretaker chief minister of the province for nine-and-a-half months.