LAHORE: The parliamentary committee of the Punjab Assembly has agreed on veteran journalist Najam Sethi as the caretaker chief minister of Punjab province, committee head Rana Sanaullah announced Tuesday.

“We have selected Najam Sethi, an opposition candidate, for the post of caretaker chief minister of Punjab,”  Sanaullah, told reporters in Lahore.

Sethi has earlier served as a federal minister in the caretaker set-up led by Malik Meraj Khalid in 1996.

The six-member committee of the Punjab Assembly reached consensus on the third and last day of consultative sessions, and announcing its decision just hours before the midnight deadline.

Former ministers Rana Sanaullah, Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman and Iqbal Chunnar represented the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) side in the committee, while the opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and PML-Quaid were represented by Shaukat Basra, Zulfiqar Gondal and Chaudhry Zaheer.

The PML-N had suggested the names of Justice Amer Raza (retired) and former bureaucrat Khawaja Zaheer Ahmed while the opposition wanted to see either Justice Zahid Husain (retired) or senior journalist Najam Sethi for the post.