PML-N intra-party elections: After a decade, Nawaz takes formal charge again

Sources say a rift between the Sharif brothers may be brewing for control of the party.

ISLAMABAD:

In an unsurprising result, the general council of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz voted to elect the party’s eponymous leader as the PML-N president for the first time in 10 years, though party leaders tried – at least symbolically – to accommodate leaders who had hitherto been sidelined for failing to toe the party line.

Nawaz Sharif formally took office as the president of the party that bears his name after more than a decade, much of which was spent in exile in Saudi Arabia after being ousted by former President Pervez Musharraf in a military coup.

Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, the PML-N’s most prominent politician from southern Punjab, who went against party policy and voiced his support for a separate province in the Seraiki belt, has been appointed senior vice president, a position thought to be largely symbolic.

Senator Raja Zafarul Haq was re-elected as the PML-N chairman while the party got four new vice presidents: Syed Ghous Ali Shah from Sindh; Sartaj Aziz  from Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa, Sardar Yaqoob Nasir from Balochistan and Sikandar Hayat from Azad Kashmir.

Senator Mushahid Ullah was made information secretary (spokesperson) after Senator Pervez Rasheed refused the post and Engineer Khurram Dastgir, a member of the National Assembly, was elected as his deputy.

Former party spokesperson Ahsan Iqbal would now be deputy secretary general and Ayaz Sadiq has been elected to look after party’s financial matters.

Meanwhile, sources inside the party claim that the post of secretary general was left vacant after a dispute arose between the Sharif brothers – Nawaz and Shahbaz – over whether to nominate the ‘pro-establishment’ Sartaj Aziz.

PML-N sources say that Shahbaz appeared keen to have Aziz take on the role, since the 82-year-old veteran politician is known for his ‘cordial’ ties with the military. Nawaz, however, quietly decided to scuttle the nomination after several senior party leaders objected, saying that having such a pro-establishment figure take a prominent role in the party would damage its democratic credentials.

Some party leaders believe that Nawaz may also have feared his brother gaining more influence, and thus wanted to ‘dispel’ such notions.

“These were the things that prompted Mian Sahib (Nawaz) to drop Sartaj Aziz’s nomination…both are very delicate and sensitive matters…he doesn’t want to run any risk,” said a key PML-N leader, interpreting what might have driven elder Sharif in his decision.



Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2011.