ISLAMABAD, APR 14 (DNA) : Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is expected to convene a meeting of parliamentary political parties including the opposition forces to discuss the caretaker PM.

The caretaker PM is constitutionally appointed following the consensus between leader of the house in National Assembly (prime minister) and leader of the opposition in NA. According to sources, the ruling party is willing to take other political forces onboard including Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in particular to finalise a candidate for caretaker premiership.

Informal discussions with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leaders suggest that the party’s leadership has decided to engage political parties and seek their respective nominations for the caretaker premier as part of political bargain.

According to relevant sources, the PML-N has focused its efforts to negotiate with the ruling parties in those provinces where it wants to get its nominations considered for chief minister.

Similarly, the leader of the house and leader of the opposition choose caretaker CMs in the respective provinces. “There is mixed arrangement at the provinces…we need to accommodate parliamentary forces at the centre in order to be accommodated in the provinces,” a well-placed source in PML-N said.

He said that the discussions on caretaker arrangements in the provinces have not yet taken place adding that the initial focus on discussions between the government and opposition would be a caretaker PM with selection of caretaker CMs to follow suit.

The formal process for choosing caretaker PM started on Wednesday following a meeting between PM Abbasi and Opposition Leader Khurshid Shah in which the names of potential candidates were reportedly discussed.