“No provision for deputy PM’s post in the Constitution”: Shehbaz Shairf government is targeted by Imran Khan’s party

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has criticized the Shehbaz Sarif-led administration for designating Ishaq Dar as Deputy Prime Minister, arguing that the Constitution does not initially provide for the position. This was reported by The News International.

Attorney Muhammad Ali Saif, Special Assistant to the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said, “The Sharif family is distributing important national posts among themselves.”
“The federal government is handing out posts instead of resolving the issues faced by the people,” said the head of the PTI.

The comments made by Barrister Saif came one day after Dar was named the deputy prime minister with immediate effect by the federal government via a Cabinet Division announcement on Sunday.

Following the February 8 elections, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) established a coalition government, and Dar was named Pakistan’s foreign minister.
According to The News International, Dar is not only a seasoned politician and professional accountant but also a close ally and cousin of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.
Prior to this, he commanded the finance ministry from 2013 to 2017 and again from 2022 to 2023. He also led the ministry from 1998 to 1999, March to May 2008, and again from 2022 to 2023.
The selection of a four-time finance minister to the position of foreign minister indicated that economics will play a larger diplomatic role as the government attempts to shore up external funding and land another International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreement.
It is important to remember that in Pakistan’s history, Dar’s appointment was the second of its kind.
Prior to the governing Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the PML-Q forging a political alliance at the Center, only one national politician, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Pervaiz Elahi, was named the nation’s first deputy prime minister in 2012.
President of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat), Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, referred to the appointment of Dar as “an extra-constitutional step that carries no substantial value” in response to the PM Shehbaz Sharif-led government’s action.
This only suggests rivalries for influence and intraparty conflicts. Mehboob was reported in The News as stating, “It is not an admirable step because we should be focusing on substantive issues rather than taking trivial and inconsequential decisions at this serious juncture of our national life and the lowest point of our economic condition.”
Attorney Abdul Moiz Jaferii, in the in the meantime, emphasized that the announcement of Dar’s nomination to the aforementioned position had no legal pretenses or orders.
Advocate Basil Nabi Malik of the Supreme Court, however, believes that the Prime Minister is authorized under Article 90(2) of the Constitution to act personally or via his federal ministers.