The highly-anticipated discussions between Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Leader of Opposition Raja Riaz to decide the country's next caretaker premier have been delayed again as the National Assembly is set to dissolve today, Geo News reported citing sources.
Raja Riaz's busy schedule is the apparent reason of him being unable to meet with Sharif today, sources said. However, he said that the meeting will be held today despite the delay. The meeting ws scheduled at 4 pm on Wednesday.
Sharif will dissolve the National Assembly today by sending a summary to Pakistan President Arif Alvi, paving the way for a new caretaker government to oversee the proceedings till the country's general election. The Assembly will be dissolved three days before the completion of the government's tenure, which will allow the elections to be held within 90 days.
Notably, the caretaker government is appointed in Pakistan after the outgoing Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition give the nod for it. If they fail to agree on a name, the Prime Minister and the Opposition leader will forward their names to a bipartisan committee to zero in on one name within a given time period.
If the committee also fails, the Election Commission of Pakistan receives the same names and chooses one of them to serve as Prime Minister. The caretaker Prime Minister appoints a Cabinet to manage the government's activities, and he leaves office as soon as the newly elected Prime Minister takes the oath of office.
On Tuesday, Riaz said that three names were almost finalised for the post of interim PM. “They do not include any politicians, but an economist has been shortlisted,” he said while denying reports of any deadlock.
General elections likely to be delayed
Meanwhile, the general elections scheduled for November are likely to be delayed till next year as the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is now required to carry out fresh delimitation of constituencies after the Council of Common Interests (CCI) approved the census 2023 last week.
The delimitation exercise requires four months to complete, so the tenure of the caretaker regime is likely to be extended by up to six months to complete the process of political transition, and a delay in holding the national election by three months
Caretaker setup extension may threaten IMF deal
If the caretaker regime in Pakistan is extended, it can embolden risks attached with the country's $3 billion stand-by deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), designed to be completed within the tenure of three different governments, according to Pakistani daily The News International.
The responsibility for materialising structural benchmarks, performance criteria and indicative targets might be given to the interim setup, which could attract strict monitoring from the global money lender. It is yet to see how the IMF reacts to the revised Circular Debt Management Plan (CDMP).
The IMF might approval the second tranche of the arrangement ($700 million) by December 2023 if all things go well in Pakistan under the caretaker government.
