Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Muhammad Asif has revealed that the Pakistan Muslim League-N and Pakistan People’s Party had shortlisted five names for the slot of caretaker prime minister.
He expressed this in a statement on Friday. PML-N stalwart confirmed that all the shortlisted candidates are politicians. He also clarified that he had not received any offer to lead the interim setup.
He said that the names of the candidates would also be discussed with other political parties and hoped that a name would be finalised within a week. He announced that the final decision would be taken by the leadership of the coalition partners.
“In my opinion elections should be held in 90 days as it suits us,” he said. While talking about the prevailing political situation in the country, he also hinted at premature dissolution of the National Assembly. He said, “I think assemblies would be dissolved two days before their tenure ends”. “It would have been very difficult if the field in the assembly had been left vacant,” he said.
The defence minister also rubbished the reports that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar’s name had been recommended for the post of the caretaker prime minister.
He said Mr Dar had never expressed such intensions at any forum.
