Pakistan appoints former chief justice as caretaker PM

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ISLAMABAD, May 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – 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 Nasir ul 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.

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.

The country witnessed its first democratic transfer of power following
polls in 2013, which Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won in a
landslide.

The upcoming elections are expected to pit the PML-N against its main
rival, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party led by former cricket star Imran
Khan.

Despite the numerous court rulings against the PML-N, the party has won a
string of recent by-elections proving it will likely remain a powerful force.