
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ( PTI ) criticized the Shehbaz Sarif-led government heavily for the appointment of Ishaq Dar as Deputy PM, claiming that the Constitution does not specifically prohibit the appointment.
According to Special Assistant to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister for Information, Muhammad Ali Saif,” The Sharif community is distributing essential national articles among themselves.”
The PTI head continued,” The federal government is handing out articles instead of addressing the issues faced by the people.”
Barrister Saif’s comment come a day after the federal government appointed Dar as the deputy prime minister with immediate effect as a result of a warning issued by the Cabinet Division on Sunday.
Following the formation of a partnership state following the February 8 elections, Dar was appointed as Pakistan’s foreign secretary.
A certified accountant and a trained politician, Dar is likewise PML- N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s relative and near aide, as reported by The News International.
He has previously served as finance secretary from 1998 to 1999, therefore from March to May 2008, and once led the finance department from 2013 to 2017 and then from 2022 to 2023.
The appointment of a four-time finance minister as foreign minister suggested a ramped-up role for economics in the nation’s diplomacy as it worked to secure another International Monetary Fund ( IMF) deal and shore up external funding.
It is important to notice that Dar’s visit was only the second for appointment in Pakistan’s history.
Before the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party ( PPP ) and the PML-Q formed a political alliance at the Centre, Pervaiz Elahi, the leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Q, was the only national politician to be appointed the country’s first deputy prime minister in 2012.
Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, president of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency ( PILDT), criticized Dar’s appointment as” an extra-constitutional step that has no significant value.”
This only points to intra-party conflicts and a fight for control, the authors say. We should be focusing on the important things rather than making trivial and meaningless decisions, Mehboob said, which is not an excellent action at this difficult stage of our nation’s life and at its worst point in terms of monetary condition.
Lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii, by contrast, emphasized that the warning regarding Dar’s visit to the said article does not contain any pretense of regulation or order.
However, Supreme Court Advocate Basil Nabi Malik is of the opinion that the Constitution’s Article 90 ( 2 ) permits the prime minister to act either directly or through his or her federal ministers.