Shujaat to remain PML-Q chief: ECP

Polls supervisor dismisses Wajahat Hussain’s request to amend party’s constitution

LAHORE:

 

Declaring the amendments made to the constitution of the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) party as null and void, the polls supervisory authority—the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)—has said Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain will remain the party chief.

On January 26, Chaudhry Wajahat Hussain – a brother of Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain – amended the constitution of the party, reducing the four-year term of the party president to two years.

Wajahat also conducted new intra-party elections in which the PML-Q elected Wajahat as its central president, formally ending the 19-year rule of Shujaat.
Interestingly, the party retained former PML-Q leader Parvez Elahi as the PML-Q Punjab president.

It also removed Shujaat’s close aide Tariq Bashir Cheema and elected Kamil Ali Agha as the central secretary general of the party. Cracks in the PML-Q first appeared in March last year when the then opposition filed a no-confidence motion against former premier Imran Khan.

Elahi then threw his weight behind the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) while Shujaat decided to side with the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) parties. The division – triggered by Elahi’s decision – split the party into two camps.  Parvez Elahi later joined the PTI.