KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah and Leader of Opposition in the dissolved Sindh Assembly Rana Ansar held the first round of consultations on Saturday to reach a consensus on the nomination of a caretaker chief minister for the province, but made little progress as no names were suggested by either side during the meeting.

However, in a press conference after the meeting, Mr Shah expressed the hope that his interim successor would be appointed through a consensus.

During the presser, the chief minister also highlighted the performance of his government over the last five years.

In a separate media talk, Rana Ansar said, “He [CM] didn’t disclose names of his side and I didn’t share them either.”

Hyderabad-based Rana Ansar bec­ame the first female opposition leader in the Sindh Assembly on July 26.

Separately, MQM-P’s Deputy Convener Mustafa Kamal said the chief minister told the opposition leader that he would suggest names for the caretaker slot after consultating with his party leadership.

“We will give our names only after PPP made its nominations,” he said.

In his presser, the outgoing CM also brushed aside speculation, doing rou­nds in the media, regarding the app­oi­ntment of a caretaker, saying: “The media speculate on several names and when one is finally decided they claim they broke the news first,” he jibed.

Media reports had claimed that both the Pakistan People Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan had decided on three names each.

As per the Constitution, the outgoing chief minister has to give three names for the caretaker CM and seek as many suggestions from the opposition leader within 48 hours of the dissolution of the assembly.

In case of an impasse, the Sindh speaker will form a committee comprising six members of the outgoing assembly with equal representation from the treasury and the opposition. The CM and opposition leader will forward two nominees each to the committee, which will have three days to evolve consensus on one name. If that fails as well, then the names of the nominees will be referred to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for a final decision within two days.

Political circles don’t rule out the possibility of the matter falling into the hands of the ECP, as mandated by the Constitution, in view of the continuing acrimony between PPP and MQM.

However, Sindh’s former advocate general Barrister Zamir Ghumro hopes both sides will reach an agreement on the matter.