Last Day of Shehbaz Govt, Summary for NA dissolution sent to President

With the National Assembly all set to be dissolved at the stroke of midnight tonight (Wednesday), Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to spend a busy day holding consultations with allies and opposition leaders regarding the formation of an ‘empowered’ caretaker set-up.

It is expected that the prime minister will hold a meeting with the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Raja Riaz to fulfil his constitutional obligation i.e. consultations regarding the appointment of an interim premier.

In addition to this, a final meeting of the federal cabinet would also be held, where the premier will give a round-up of his government’s performance since April last year.

He is also expected to take cabinet members into confidence over the composition of the caretaker government, which is likely to have representation from all allied parties. A source privy to developments told Dawn that there was a possibility that parties in the ruling coalition may get the same portfolios in the interim set-up that they are currently holding.

Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition Raja Riaz told reporters on Tuesday that he hoped his meeting with the PM would take place today (Wednesday) where these matters would be discussed. He was of the view that consultations would take place at “the right time”.

According to the opposition leader, he had completed the consultation process with his allies and three names for the interim prime minister were almost finalised.