Opposition rejects Sharif’s re-election as PML-N head

Treasury benches welcome the development; Shehbaz also congratulates brother

LAHORE: Expressing confidence over former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the treasury benches welcomed his re-election as PML-N president while the opposition demanded that political parties observe October 3 as a black day.

Submitting their resolutions in the Punjab Assembly, both treasury and opposition benches gave their reactions over Nawaz Sharif’s reelection as party president.



In her resolution, PML-N MPA Hina Pervez Butt said all institutions should work in their respective domains. She said the institutions should also avoid incidents which could create misunderstandings and clashes with the government. She was of the view that the house expressed its complete confidence over the leadership of Nawaz Sharif and the country would move towards progress under him.

On the other hand, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislator Shoaib Siddiqui, in his resolution, demanded all political parties observe October 3, the day former PM Nawaz Sharif was reelected party president, as a black day.

He said the ruling party got an Election Reforms Bill passed from the National Assembly, paving the way for the former premier, who the country’s top court had disqualified, to hide assets from the election commission.

“The people of this country are well aware and have recognised the fact that the Sharif family took billions of rupees abroad illegally. And now, a disqualified person has been reelected as party president under the Election Reforms Act,” he remarked.



He said some intolerable words were used in the ceremony against institutions. Siddiqui said people of this county had strong reservations over the ruling party’s conduct in which a bill got passed from the National Assembly for protect Nawaz Sharif and his reelection as party president.

He said October 3 would be remembered as a black day in the political history of the country for all times to come.

He also demanded the federal government announce that all political parties to observe October 3 as black day.

Talking to The Express Tribune, opposition leader Mian Mehmoodur Rasheed said they appeal the Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal Khan to take up this resolution in Punjab Assembly’s coming session. However, he condemned the re-election, expressing his reservations that a disqualified man was re-elected as party president.

“By reelecting a disqualified person as party president, ‘disqualified league’ has proved that now there will be ineligibles on all positions of the PML-N,” PTI Central Punjab President Abdul Aleem Khan made these remarks while speaking to the media on Tuesday. He said that instead of mending their ways, “the godfather and corrupt mafia” have amended the Constitution of Pakistan.

Khan said the N-league was “dragging the coffin of a disqualified person” but they have forgotten that “one day they themselves would fall in the same ditch which they have dug for democracy.” He said actions of the ruling party, from amending the Constitution and reelecting a disqualified person, have proved that it does not honour any national institutions.

CM congratulates Nawaz

Meanwhile, Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif congratulated Nawaz Sharif on his reelection as the president of PML-N.

“Whether it’s the Senate or the National Assembly, Nawaz Sharif has been elected as the PML-N president with the support of all four provinces, along with the consent of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan despite difficult circumstances,” the chief minister said.

“His reelection as the PML-N President is an acknowledgment that he is the heartbeat of the people,” he added.

He added that’s over the last four years, despite sit-ins, lockdown, opposing circumstances and closing down of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad cities, the PML-N government worked day and night to wriggle the country out of the quagmire of crises and eliminate the energy crisis,” he concluded.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2017.