PML-N top cadre ‘elected’ unopposed

‘Your time is over,’ Nawaz tells Imran after his reelection as party’s president.

ISLAMABAD: The intra-party elections of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz didn’t spring any surprises on Tuesday. Quite expectedly, most bigwigs clinched coveted slots in the party’s hierarchy – that too without any challenge.

Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister, was again elected president of the ruling party unopposed in the largely ceremonial intraparty elections where the electorate was the party’s general council.

The council also elected 10 other office-bearers, including Raja Zafarul Haq (chairman), six senior vice presidents (SVPs) – Sartaj Aziz, Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan, Nawabzada Changez Khan Marri, Saranjam Khan, Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir and Imdad Hussain Chandio – as well as Pervaiz Rashid (secretary finance) and Mushahidullah Khan (secretary information).

More than 2,200 members, belonging to the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu Kashmir and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, showed up at the Convention Centre to elect the party’s office-bearers in the sixth general council meeting. Now, Sharif, in his capacity as PML-N president, will nominate the party’s secretary general and his deputy.

The PML-N’s top hierarchy remained largely unchanged with the exception of Saranjam Khan and Imdad Chandio, who replaced Ghous Ali Shah and Ameer Muqam as senior vice presidents. Muqam is likely to get important position in the party in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, while Shah is a strong candidate in Sindh, sources told The Express Tribune.

Tuesday’s intraparty elections witnessed an unexpectedly interesting situation when one candidate ‘Prince’ Abdul Qadir Baloch, a PML-N worker, submitted his nomination papers for the office of president to contest against Sharif.

However, PML-N Chief Election Commissioner Chaudhry Jaffar Iqbal rejected his nomination on the grounds that Baloch was not a member of the general council and his name was not included in the voters list. Sources in the PML-N, however, said it was ‘planned move’.

“There is nothing unusual about it. Everybody knows how and why these polls are conducted. It was deemed necessary to add a bit of ‘democratic flavour’ to this process,” said a PML-N leader, while requesting not to be named.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, CEC Iqbal said the intraparty elections in Punjab would be held today (October 19) in Lahore, and subsequently in the other provinces, the scheduled for which would be finalised soon.

“The general council has mandated the party president, Nawaz Sharif, to appoint secretary general and deputy secretary general of the party. This does not require election. These appointments will be made in near future,” he added.

The post of secretary general has been lying vacant since Iqbal Zafar Jhagra became K-P’s governor in March this year. Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal was the deputy secretary general earlier.

“The tenure of all the elected office-bearers at the centre, in provinces and lower-levels is four-year from the election date,” Iqbal said, adding that provincial councils and election committees would elect their office-bearers.

Headed by the CEC, the five-member GC Committee supervised the PML-N intraparty elections. The other four-members are Muhammad Sarfraz (Punjab), Ali Afzal Jadoon (K-P), Najma Hameed (Sindh) and Ameer Afzal Mandokhel (Balochistan).

On the occasion, a total of 13 resolutions were unanimously passed, which demanded some minor changes in the PML-N constitution, supported security forces’ action against terrorism and condemned India’s brutalities in occupied Kashmir.

One resolution also congratulated Sharif on his unopposed election, empowering him to make any nomination and related appointments in the party and gratitude to the public for electing the PML-N to power for a third time.

Defiant Nawaz hits out at the PTI

Delivering a fiery speech after his reelection, Sharif took jibes at the PTI which plans to lock down the federal capital on November 2 to force the prime minister to either offer himself up for accountability or resign in the wake of Panamagate scandal.

“Your politics is over,” said Sharif.  “You wasted your time on singing and dancing atop a container,” he said while referring to his political arch-rival Imran Khan, who used a purpose-built shipping container during his party’s 2014 marathon sit-in in the capital.

“People will never turn to you. God gave you an opportunity to serve people in K-P [where the PTI is in power]   but you disappointed them. You will vanish from K-P after the 2018 elections,” he said.

Referring to PTI’s November 2 call, Sharif said, “They say we will block the roads. I tell them: we will keep making roads and you will keep loitering over them. It’s your fate — you can’t help it — I don’t care who comes on a container, how much abusive he gets. I don’t care. I will pull people out of the quagmire of miseries and lead them on the road to prosperity,” he said.

The premier once again listed his government’s development plans, saying that 10,000MW electricity would be added to the national grid by 2018 to eliminate blackouts.

He also mentioned the 1,000-kilometres railway network being set up in Balochistan, Thar coal project, setting up of 45 new hospitals across the country and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

“They [PTI] termed the Metro bus project in Islamabad ‘Jangla’ bus service. Go and see how thousands of people, including kids, are using this service at the cheapest fares. We are introducing the Green Line Project in Karachi and many more are to come,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 19^th, 2016.