IT should have been the end of the particular controversy, but the selection appears to have deepened it.

Punjab finally has a caretaker chief minister: Hasan Askari, a political commentator and retired academic. Nominated by the PTI and selected by the ECP after the PML-N and PTI failed to reach an agreement on the post, Mr Askari’s appointment has been rejected by the PML-N.

The PML-N’s contention is that Mr Askari is a partisan figure and his appointment as caretaker chief minister of Punjab has undermined the possibility of a free and fair election in the province. Given that Punjab is the principal battleground in the general election, fears of interference by the caretaker administration could cast doubt over the legitimacy of the election and the result.

Yet, it appears that no side has acquitted itself well in the constitutional caretaker appointment process that should have been managed more prudently.

First, the PML-N ought to reconsider its campaign against Mr Askari. The fierce opposition his appointment has elicited from the party leadership does not appear to be grounded in the facts.

The new caretaker chief minister has a decades-long public record that is academically sound and politically not hyper partisan. The PML-N has researched and unearthed some unfavourable comments made by him against the party, but these do not rise to automatic disqualification from a caretaker post that is by law apolitical.

Still, the PTI’s apparent disarray during the nomination process has surely contributed to the controversy. Mr Askari may not be a hyper partisan figure, but his nomination by the PTI can cast his criticisms of the PML-N in a new light.

Perhaps Mr Askari could have considered rejecting his nomination by the PTI or selection by the ECP, but he did not consider either possibility. Now, the caretaker chief minister will have to conduct himself scrupulously in office to avoid attracting more criticism.

Published in Dawn, June 9th, 2018