The parliamentary committee formed to finalise the name of the caretaker chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa failed to reach any consensus and the issue would now be referred to the Election Commission of Pakistan, PTI leader Shaukat Yousafzai told Dawn on Saturday.

The PTI had suggested the names of two bureaucrats Ijaz Qureshi and Hamayatullah Khan, whereas, the JUI-F had proposed the names of businessman Manzoor Afridi and retired Justice Dost Muhammad. The members of the parliamentary committee failed to arrive at a consensus as both the sides continued to stick to their nominees, Yousafzai said.

According to the procedure set under the 18th Constitution Amendment, now these four names would be forwarded to the ECP which would make a final decision in this regard.

The meeting of the parliamentary committee was held at the KP House in Islamabad. Former provincial ministers Shah Farman and Mehmood Khan represented the PTI whereas Mehmood Bhitani and Noor Saleem represented JUI-F.

Earlier, the PTI had agreed on the name of Manzoor Afridi for the caretaker chief minister and the party even released an official handout and a picture of Afridi with party chairman Imran Khan at his Banigala residence.

However, within 24 hours, the PTI reversed its decision and withdrew the name of Afridi. The opposition parties in the KP Assembly had alleged that the then chief minister Pervez Khattak and the JUI-F leaders had received huge amounts from Manzoor Afridi for his nomination as the chief minister.

The charges, however, were denied both by Khattak and the JUI-F leadership. Manzoor Afridi is known as the financier of the JUI-F and his brother Ayub Afridi is a Senator on PTI’s ticket.

The PTI chief reportedly reversed the decision after getting reports on the social media that Manzoor Afridi had sponsored the JUI-F campaign against the Fata merger.