Pakistan selects retired judge as caretaker PM

Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, 84, has been selected by the election commission after a parliamentary committee and rival parties fail to agree on a candidate.

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ISLAMABAD // Pakistan yesterday finally selected a caretaker prime minister to head an interim administration that will guide the country through its election period.

Mir Hazar Khan Khoso, 84, a retired judge, was selected by the election commission after a parliamentary committee and rival parties failed to agree on a candidate. He comes from the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan.

"We have picked Mir Hazar Khan Khoso after frankly and openly discussing all the four names forwarded to us," said the chief election commissioner, Fakhruddin Ibrahim.

The outgoing government had proposed Mr Khoso and a former central bank governor, while the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-N, considered the front-runner to win the May 11 election, put forward the name of another retired judge and a politician.

Mr Khoso was selected a week after parliament was dissolved and four days after President Asif Ali Zardari set the date for the general election.