PESHAWAR: The government and the opposition in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa agreed on Thursday on the name of Justice (retd) Tariq Pervez Khan, a former judge of the Supreme Court, as the caretaker chief minister. A formal announcement in this regard would be made on Friday, official sources said.

A source privy to negotiations going on for the past few days between Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti and Leader of the Opposition in provincial assembly, Akram Khan Durrani, told Dawn that the two leaders considered several names before agreeing to send the name of Justice Tariq Pervez to the governor for appointment as caretaker chief minister.

Abbas Khan, a former inspector general of police, was among the candidates for the job of caretaker chief minister.

Mr. Hoti and Mr. Durrani are scheduled to address a press conference in Islamabad on Friday where they would announce nomination of Justice Tariq Pervez as caretaker chief minister.

By agreeing on the name of a caretaker chief minister, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has taken lead over the three other provinces as well as the centre. Under the Constitution, a caretaker chief minister has to be appointed by the governor in consultation with the chief minister and the leader of opposition.

A former chief justice of Peshawar High Court Justice Tariq Pervez was a judge of repute who earned a lot of respect from the legal fraternity and civil society when he declined to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order after General Pervez Musharraf declared emergency on Nov 3, 2007.

He was chief justice of the high court at that time. Tariq Pervez Khan was finally restored along with several other judges of superior courts.

Justice Tariq Pervez was born in Peshawar on Feb 15, 1948, and did his graduation in law in 1971 from the University of Peshawar. He was considered a competent lawyer and well-versed in different fields of law, especially criminal jurisprudence.

Justice Tariq Pervez had served as president of PHC Bar Association in 1996. He was appointed as chief justice of PHC on April 5, 2005, and elevated to the Supreme Court in Oct 2009. He retired from that post on Feb 14 this year.

Sources said that some elements in the government had raised objections over the nomination of Justice Tariq Pervez because two years had not elapsed after his retirement from government service. However, they added, the objections was rejected as some legal experts were of the opinion that the two-year bar was not required for the post of caretaker chief minister as it was not included in the service of Pakistan under article 260 of the Constitution.

When a reference was filed against Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry in March 2007, Justice Tariq Pervez was the first chief justice of a high court to have attended a reference put forward by the Peshawar High Court Bar Association.