As the curtain fell on Sunday night on DawnNews’ seven-episode flagship series — ‘Enter the Prime Minister’ — a novel and unconventional solution was found to accommodate the verdict of the panel of six judges that constituted both the prosecution and voters in the programme. The chairman of the panel of judges, Karachi-based lawyer Qazi Faez Isa, declined to use his casting vote, and the verdict on the choice of prime minister was declared to be a ‘tie’ between the two final contesting candidates. Renowned human rights activist Asma Jehangir and her opponent corporate CEO and business activist Asad Umar accepted the solution for the post of prime minister in the coming government. The two candidates split the jackpot prize of two return tickets to Washington DC.

‘Enter the Prime Minister’ was launched in early December in time for the Jan 8 elections by DawnNews as the icing on its elaborate package of informational programmes and talk shows surrounding the current elections. Approximately 1,000 names, both known and unknown ‘were nominated by members of the public’ and senior editors of the Dawn Media Group, a short list of 16 candidates from Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad was created.

The seven-episode series on television played out in three rounds. In round I — 16 candidates deemed ‘suitable’ by senior editors of the media group believed to possess the requisite qualities suitable for the post of prime minister. An evaluation of candidates was made by the panel of judges and from the first round two groups of three candidates each were selected for participation in Round II. Finally in Round III, two contesting candidates debated a host of policy issues on the basis of which the winner was to be chosen as the candidate amongst nominees ‘possessing the requisite abilities most suited to be prime minister.

The shortlist of 16 consisted of four relatively unknown figures who acted as the ‘vox populi’ and who had little if no previous experience of public affairs. Arshad Bhatti, a media and education consultant; a young upcoming female entrepreneur Sadia Khan; a qualified corrosion technologist Dr Farid Malik; and Sarmad Tariq, a physically challenged HR motivational speaker.

Twelve high-profile public personalities constituted the mainstay of debating and governance skills witnessed in the series. They included senator and PML-Q secretary-general Mushahid Hussain; internationally renowned rights activist Asma Jehangir; party leader from the NWFP-based PPP Patriots (Sherpao), Ms Anisa Zeb Taherkheli; public policy analyst Nasim Zehra; corporate CEO Asad Umar; policy activist on governance issues, Shafqat Mehmood; a distinguished former civil servant Tasneem Noorani, who has served at the helm of both the interior and commerce ministries; former interior minister and strongman from the early days of Musharraf’s government, Lt Gen (retired) Moinuddin Haider; a former dissident leader from the Sindh PPP, Makhdoom Khaleeq-uz-Zaman; foreign policy analyst and former politician, Shafqat Ali Shah Jamote; and PML-N party leader and restaurateur Sardar Rahim.