Shehbaz, Raja Riaz to meet again for consultations on caretaker PM

Riaz says he would deliberate further with PM Shehbaz on names exchanged with each other

ISLAMABAD:

The second round of consultations between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Raja Riaz to select a caretaker premier will be held in Islamabad on today.

According to a press release from the Prime Minster's Office (PMO), the premier invited the leader of the opposition for consultation as per provisions of the Constitution.

The first meeting for this purpose was held in a cordial manner a day earlier, however, the two failed to reach a consensus on a single name and decided to take up the matter again.

“We’ve yet to reach a consensus,” the opposition leader told reporters after leaving the PM House.

The official statement released after the rendezvous read that PM Shehbaz and Riaz would meet again on Friday to deliberate further on the names proposed in the consultation held on Thursday.

Read: PM consults allies on caretaker set-up

The opposition leader said the names would not be revealed until one of them was finalised.

However, he added that he had shared the names of the candidates he favoured with the premier, hoping that matters would be sorted out on Friday.

Riaz said he would deliberate further with PM Shehbaz on the names exchanged with each other.

He continued that he would consider the names proposed by the premier and the latter would reflect on the candidates he had suggested during the meeting.

The opposition leader maintained that PM Shehbaz was unaware of the names he had proposed, suggesting they were revealed for the first time in the meeting.

Although both were unable to reach a consensus, Riaz was hopeful that he and Shehbaz would agree on a single candidate out of the six names exchanged between them for the interim premier’s slot in the subsequent meetings.

Speculations have been making rounds about different contenders for the post of caretaker premier for weeks now but there is no official word yet.