Will hand over charge to caretaker government in August: Pak PM Shehbaz Sharif

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday assured the nation that his government will hand over the reins of the government to an interim setup in August to steer it through the general elections.

In a televised address to the nation, Sharif also said his government has cleared the "landmines" spread in the way of Pakistan's interests by former prime minister Imran Khan.

This comes a day after Sharif, the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, said at a ceremony in Islamabad that Parliament would complete its term on August 14 to pave the way for interim government and elections.

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Sharif, who was sworn in in April last year, stated that he was given the “sacred responsibility” to run the country as the prime minister.

“We will hand over this responsibility in August 2023 to the caretaker government,” he said.

Under the Constitution of Pakistan, general elections must be held under the supervision of a neutral caretaker government so that a level playing field is available to all political parties.

The caretaker prime minister is appointed by agreement between the outgoing prime minister and the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly.

If they fail to agree on a name, the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition send their names to a bipartisan committee to agree on a name within a given time period.

If the committee also fails, the same names are sent to the Election Commission of Pakistan, which appoints one of them as the prime minister.

The caretaker prime minister appoints a Cabinet to run the affairs of the country and his tenure ends as soon as the new prime minister takes oath after elections.

It is so far not clear who would be the caretaker prime minister but political parties are having consultations to appoint one with consensus.

Sharif in his address said that his government in a short period of 15 months tried to clear what he termed as the “rubble of destruction” left by his predecessor Khan.

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Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, was ousted from power in April last year after the National Assembly passed a no-confidence motion against him.

“We cleaned the landmines spread in the way of Pakistan’s interests,” he said.

He said that the government had been successful in dousing the fire caused by the mismanagement, inefficiency and conspiracy by the former government.

“This brief 1.5-year period was a journey from the darkness of hopelessness to the light of hope … it was the beginning of gaining something after losing everything … it was a journey of returning towards development from anarchy and chaos,” he said.

He took credit for facing some of the toughest challenges and tackling the problems and setting a direction of the economy and the country.

The address was made on the day the International Monetary Fund provided $1.2 billion out of $3 billion which the global lender approved for the cash-strapped country.

It averted the threat of default and would help the caretaker set up to focus on the election without worrying about the economic situation of the country.