Islamabad [Pakistan], July 24 : Pakistan's Finance Minister Ishaq Dar confirmed on Sunday that the Election Act 2017 is set to be amended in order to empower the upcoming caretaker government to take important decisions until a democratically elected government takes over, Dawn reported.
During an interview with the Pakistani news channel, Dar was questioned whether Section 230 of the Election Act — which relates to the functions of a caretaker government — was about to be amended. “To the best of my understanding, yes,” he replied.
“I don’t think this is something to hide from the nation. They will find out and it should [indeed] be amended,” Dar said, adding that the nation’s time should not be wasted by having the caretaker government be bogged down solely in “day-to-day” tasks.
Questioned if the caretaker prime minister would have more power to take important decisions after the amendment, Dar said: “He should be [in that position to take major actions].”
During the interview, he was also questioned if he was in the running for the position of the caretaker prime minister, Dar said that it is “premature” to comment on it. He said that he did not believe in pursuing or desiring any office, as per Dawn.
He further stated that whosoever will be chosen as the caretaker PM will have his full support as a senator.
Earlier, there were reports that the Finance Minister was considered to be the caretaker PM.
Sources told ARY News that the PML-N has become active to convince Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) – a coalition partner in the Centre – on Ishaq Dar’s name for that post.
Sources claimed that the finance minister’s name came under discussion during a meeting between PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif and PPP co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari.
The tenure of the National Assembly is set to expire on August 12 and meetings are underway between the members of the government on the details of the interim set-up.
It is pertinent to mention here that Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif had formed a five-member dialogue committee to finalise the matters related to the caretaker set-up and general elections, according to ARY News.
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