PAKISTAN POLLS: Former CJ appointed as caretaker PM

Pakistan's ruling and opposition parties yesterday announced the appointment of a former Supreme Court chief justice as caretaker prime minister.

The selection of Nasir ul Mulk comes days after the country's president announced that general elections will be held on July 25 -- setting up what would only be Pakistan's second ever democratic transfer of power.

"Today is an important day in the democratic history of Pakistan, the name was chosen after consensus was reached," said Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi during a press conference.

Mulk famously helped pave the way for the removal of former PM Yousaf Raza Gilani after he was convicted for contempt in 2012 for refusing to ask Swiss authorities to reopen corruption cases against then president Asif Ali Zardari.

The current government's tenure will end on May 31. Power will then be handed over to a caretaker administration after the parliament is dissolved until a new government is formed following elections.

The July polls will bring to a head political tensions that have been mounting since former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted by the Supreme Court on corruption charges last July and later barred from politics for life.