Elahi threatens legal battle if ECP chooses caretaker CM.

LAHORE -- Punjab Assembly Speaker Sibtain Khan has summoned the maiden meeting of the parliamentary committee for appointment of a caretaker chief minister here on Friday, as outgoing Chief Minister Parvez Elahi threatened to move the Supreme Court if the selection is made by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

A notification issued by the assembly secretariat on Thursday says the six-member committee will meet at 3pm at the assembly chambers.

The parliamentary panel formed under Article 224A of the Constitution comprises six lawmakers having equal representation both from the treasury and the opposition.

Former minister Raja Basharat, Mian Aslam Iqbal and Hashim Jawan Bakht will represent the ruling alliance of PTI-Q League, while the opposition will be represented by PM's special assistant Malik Muhammad Ahmad Khan, PPP's parliamentary leader Syed Hassan Murtaza and Malik Nadeem Kamran.

It will deliberate on the nominations made both by Mr Elahi and opposition leader in the outgoing assembly Hamza Shehbaz as caretaker CM and try to develop a consensus on one of the nominees.

Under the law, it will have to take a decision within three days after the matter is referred to it. In case of its failure to reach a consensus candidate, the issue will go to the ECP, which will have two days to settle it.

PA speaker summons parliamentary committee; controversy over change of nominee by Elahi

Mr Elahi had suggested three names (though Article 224A allows only two nominations) for the slot: ex-chief secretary Nasir Mahmood Khosa, serving bureaucrat (cabinet division secretary) Ahmed Nawaz Sukhera and Naseer Khan, reportedly a relative of the outgoing chief minister. Mr Shehbaz had nominated Ahad Cheema, a former bureaucrat and Special Assistant to PM, and Mohsin Naqvi, owner of a media house.

The notification issued by the speaker for the summoning of the committee's meeting however stirred a controversy as it reduced the nominations from three to two, with the second one a new entry.

In fact, there were two notifications - the first shared with the media at around 3pm said the committee will meet at 2pm, while it excluded nominations by either side. The second one released to the media at 6.50pm said Mr Elahi had nominated Mr Sukhera and Naveed Akram Cheema, a former chief secretary, as the caretaker CM. The opposition PML-N has objected to the change of nominees. Malik Ahmad Khan, who is also part of the committee, says the nominations given...