'No provision in Constitution for deputy PM's post': PTI

PESHAWAR: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has come down hard on the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sarif-led government over its decision to appoint Ishaq Dar as deputy PM, saying that the Constitution does not provision the said post to begin with.

Special Assistant to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister For Information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif 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," the PTI leader added. 

Barrister Saif's remarks come a day after the federal government, via a notification issued by the Cabinet Division on Sunday, appointed Dar as the deputy PM with immediate effect.

Dar was appointed as the country's foreign minister after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) formed a coalition government following the February 8 elections.

A chartered accountant and a seasoned politician, Dar is also PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif's relative and close aide.

He has earlier served as finance minister from 1998 to 1999, then from March to May 2008, and again led the finance ministry from 2013 to 2017 and then from 2022 to 2023.

The appointment of a four-time finance minister as foreign minister suggested a ramped-up role for economics in the nation's diplomacy as the country tries to secure another International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal and shore up external financing.

Before Dar's appointment, then Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader Pervaiz Elahi remained the only national politician who was appointed the country’s first deputy prime minister in 2012, after the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the PML-Q forged a political alliance at the Centre.

Think tank, lawyers react to Dar's appointment

Reacting to Dar's appointment, Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) President Ahmed Bilal Mehboob termed the PM Shehbaz Sharif-led government's move "an extra-constitutional step that carries no substantial value".

"This just indicates intra-party tensions and competition for influence. It is not an admirable step because, at this serious juncture of our national life and the lowest point of our economic condition, we should be focusing on substantive issues rather than taking trivial and inconsequential decisions," The News reported quoting Mehboob.

Meanwhile, lawyer Abdul Moiz Jaferii highlighted the absence of any pretence of law or order in the notification regarding Dar's appointment on the said post.

However, Supreme Court Advocate Basil Nabi Malik is of the view that Article 90(2) of the Constitution does allow the prime minister to act either directly or through his federal ministers.