PESHAWAR: The sudden demise of the caretaker chief minister has sent Khyber Pakhtunkhwa into a constitutional crisis. According to legal experts and senior government officials, the caretaker cabinet has ceased to exist and the leader of the house and leader of the opposition would again meet to nominate someone for the position of acting chief minister.

“As per the Constitution, the government means the chief minister and his cabinet ministers. When the chief minister is no longer available, the cabinet is technically dissolved,” a senior government official argued.

Pleading anonymity, he said KP Chief Secretary Nadim Aslam Chaudhry and Advocate General Aamir Javed had started consultations with legal experts to find a solution to the issue.

According to sources, the advocate general held a detailed meeting with Governor Ghulam Ali on Saturday night. “The governor has invited the former leader of the house and opposition leader of the previous provincial assembly to a meeting to develop consensus on one name within three days and send it to the governor to be announced as next caretaker chief minister,” he added.

According to the official, the three-day period has already started from Saturday and both of them, leader of the house and opposition, will need to nominate someone to the governor in the next two days.

Meanwhile, caretaker Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi said that after the death of KP CM, the procedure given in the Constitution will be followed. In a post on X, he said the spirit of the Constitution was very clear.

The governor, chief secretary, and the entire provincial government will perform their duties under the Constitution, Solangi added. There was no crisis and the new KP CM will be appointed soon, he maintained. He ruled out any room for any kind of speculation.

The late Azam Khan was made the caretaker chief minister on January 22, 2023, following the resignation of the-then chief minister Mahmood Khan and dissolution of the provincial assembly. Known as an influential and respected civil servant, he held key positions during his long career as a bureaucrat.

Senior government officials, having worked with the late chief minister, praised him for his good intentions but recalled that his old age and poor health didn’t allow him to focus on important government matters that required extra attention.

They noted that the former chief minister didn’t have enough control over important decisions related to the transfer and postings of senior government officials in the province.

Azam Khan also remained a part of the previous caretaker government and served as federal interior minister, minister for inter-provincial coordination, minister for capital administration and development division, minister for narcotics control and minister for communication from June 5, 2018 to August 31, 2018.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan passed away due to cardiac arrest on Saturday. He was 90.

Azam was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in his native Prang village in Charsadda district. A large number of people, including Governor Ghulam Ali, Punjab caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi, politicians as well as serving and retired officials attended his funeral.