PML-N to name PM’s candidate today

Party will also decide candidates for Punjab CM, speaker and deputy speaker

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has called a meeting of senior party leaders on Monday at its Central Secretariat in Lahore to decide its nominee for the next prime minister.

According to party spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb, the members of the Central Executive Committee along with other senior party leaders have been called for a meeting to take decisions for the nomination of the next prime minister.

She said that the other important decision mainly includes selecting the party’s nominee for Punjab chief minister and Punjab Assembly speaker and Punjab Assembly deputy speaker. She added that all these decisions would be made on Monday and announced to the media.



PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif is the obvious choice for the prime minister’s slot, according to a senior party leader. He said that Shehbaz Sharif will be a natural choice for the party since he was going for the National Assembly and abandoning his Punjab Assembly seat. He added that PML-N was aware of its inability to form government in Punjab.

He said that if for some reason, Shehbaz Sharif himself decides not to contest for the position of prime minister then the nomination might probably pass onto Khawaja Asif or Ahsan Iqbal. He added that in any case Shehbaz would become the opposition leader because the PM slot was out of the reach of grand opposition alliance.

It is pertinent to mention that the Grand Opposition Alliance on Thursday decided at a multi-party conference to field joint candidates for the offices of prime minister, National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) candidates.

According to the decision made during the MPC, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) would nominate its candidate for NA speaker, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) would nominate its candidate for deputy speaker while PML-N will nominate for the office of prime minister.



The sources denied the rumours regarding Hamza being an obvious choice for Punjab CM. According to sources, PML-N has very less chances of forming a government in Punjab, so the party would not waste a NA seat in competition, which it was bound to lose, revealed the sources.  He said that Hamza and even Rana Sanaullah might be asked to go for the National Assembly.  He added that many candidates in Punjab were under consideration for the position of CM, speaker, deputy speaker and the important slot of Opposition leader in Punjab Assembly. He added that the decision in this regard would be made by Monday.