Governor Haji Ghulam Ali on Wednesday signed the summary on the dissolution of the provincial assembly on advice of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, mere days after the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly.
The governor directed Mahmood Khan to continue working as acting chief minister until the interim government takes office.
Governor Ghulam Ali also expressed the willingness to arbitrate between Mahmood Khan and the leader of the opposition.
On Tuesday, K-P CM had sent advice to the governor seeking the dissolution of the provincial assembly under Article 112(1) of the Constitution on the instructions of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.
The dissolution of the assembly will trigger the process of consultation between the outgoing chief minister and the opposition leader for installing an interim government.
Until the formation of a caretaker government, Mahmood will continue his duties as the CM albeit for a few days.
It is only the incumbent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly speaker, out of all elected representatives, who will hold his position until the newly-elected lawmakers take an oath and elect his replacement.
For the formation of a caretaker government, CM Mehmood will write to the leader of the opposition in the KP Assembly, within 48 hours of the dissolution of the assembly, seeking three names for the caretaker chief minister and will suggest three names himself.
If an impasse, between the two leaders, lasts for three days, then the speaker will form a committee comprising six members of the outgoing assembly with equal representation from the treasury and the opposition.
The dissolution of the K-P Assembly comes days after the dissolution of the Punjab Assembly, which was also dissolved on the instruction of Imran. The PTI chief had announced on November 26 at the culmination of the Haqeeqi Azadi March that he would dissolve the two provincial assemblies, where the PTI was at the helm.
Imran had said that if the elections were to be held in 66 per cent of the country after the dissolution of the assemblies, the government would be unable to stop general elections from taking place.
