Shehbaz Sharif will be new president of PML-N

In this file photo, Shahbaz Sharif, brother of former Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif, leaves after attending the first session of the Punjab province assembly in Lahore on Apr. 9, 2008. (AFP)

ISLAMABAD: Chief Minister of Punjab Shehbaz Sharif will be the next president of Pakistan’s ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Sen. Pervaiz Rasheed, aide to ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif — Shehbaz’s older brother, told Arab News: “All senior party members have unanimously proposed Shehbaz for president of the party.”
Shehbaz Sharif will formally be named party president after the Senate elections next month, he added.
“Shehbaz is a good administrator and is well known for his good governance in Punjab,” Rasheed explained. “We believe he will instill new vigor into the party.”
PML-N’s party constitution says that if the office of president becomes vacant the secretary-general will convene, within seven days, a meeting of the Central Working Committee to elect an acting president, and that a new president must be elected within 45 days.
PML-N was served notice on Wednesday from the Election Commission of Pakistan that since the office has been vacant since July 28, 2017 — when Nawaz Sharif was banned from holding public office because of his failure to disclose his assets, as revealed in the Panama Papers — it was required to fill that vacancy “in accordance with the party’s constitution.”
Also on Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled that, as a person disqualified from holding public office, Nawaz Sharif could no longer lead a political party.
“The Election Commission of Pakistan is directed to remove the name of Mian Mohammed Nawaz Sharif as president/party head of Pakistan Muslim League (N) from all relevant record(s),” the court said in its ruling.
The party has the right to file a review petition against the judgment, but Rasheed suggested that would not happen.
“Where should we file the review petition?” he said. “We are not getting justice.”