LAHORE, August 8: Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Shehbaz Sharif is to be appointed president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), chairman of PML-N’s central working committee Raja Zafarul Haq reported on Tuesday. The senior party member laid bare decision of the party leadership in an interview with British Broadcasting Agency (BBC) and asserted that formal announcement is to be made soon. He said that majority of the party members favour CM Shehbaz to take place of PML-N’s former president after he was issued notice today by the election commission to give up the seat. He said that Shehbaz Sharif was appointed president of the political organisation earlier when ex-premier Nawaz Sharif was living in exile in Saudi Arabia. Decision of the organisation to appoint Shehbaz as party chief has come in hours after Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) served a notice to the former premier to relinquish party president’s seat as a disqualified leader could not hold a party office. The notification was issued in lines with Political Parties Act 2002. The commission has served the notice a day ahead of former premier Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Lahore along with cavalcade via GT Road in an apparent power show that opposition parties have branded an act to pressurise state institutions.-Agencies
