Shahbaz likely to be elected as president

‘Members had reservations about Hamza Sharif as general secretary’.


Abdul Manan March 04, 2012

LAHORE: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) provincial general council will meet today (Monday) at 1pm at Aiwan-i-Iqbal to elect its office bearers.

The party is holding its Punjab chapter elections after a delay of more than two years. The last time elections were held was in 2004. Office bearers are elected for a five-year term, according to the party constitution. In September 2009, Nawaz Sharif, instead of holding elections, had appointed provincial chief organisers. Sirdar Zulfiqar Khosa was appointed the Punjab chief organiser.

In July, 2011 the party elected its central office bearers but deferred provincial chapter elections. Punjab is the last province to hold party elections. A few months ago, the PML-N elected provincial office bearers in other provinces.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif is likely to be elected as the Punjab president while Raja Ashfaq Sarwar, an adviser, will be the general secretary, council members privy to the developments told The Express Tribune. Shahbaz was elected the party’s central president in 2002 and 2006.

Nawaz will preside over the meeting, which is expected to be attended by 1,200 councillors.

The PML-N had earlier decided to bifurcate the Punjab chapter. According to party members, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the decision was overturned after it was met with strong opposition. They said that Senator Sirdar Zulfiqar Ali Khan Khosa – whom the party had wanted to elect as the Punjab president – had refused to accept the decision. The original plan had also included electing Hamza Shahbaz Sharif as the general secretary. However, that idea was also shot down, said the members, because many had reservations about him. After Khosa was elected senator, the members demanded that Shahbaz Sharif be made the Punjab president. Nawaz proposed Raja Ishfaq Sarwar as a candidate for general secretary.

Sources said that the party hoped that the election of three senators from south Punjab would help it strike a balance between south Punjab and central Punjab. In the last elections all PML-N senators had belonged to Rawalpindi division, they pointed out.

The councillors will elect a provincial president, a vice president, a general secretary, an information secretary, a finance secretary and joint secretaries.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 5th, 2012.

COMMENTS (1)

madiha | 12 years ago | Reply

lahore is the own property of his family, he should give some powers to his up coming kid in advance

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