ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Central Executive Committee (CEC), which met on Thursday, appointed Senator Yaqoob Khan Nasar as acting president of the party. The meeting was headed by PML-N Chairman Raja Zafarul Haq. Sources said Raja Zafarul Haq proposed the name of Nasar for the post which was approved by the CEC. Earlier, sacked prime minister Nawaz Sharif had given a green light for the appointment. During the meeting the CEC held consultations over election of a permanent president. Sources said that the meeting also considered calling a meeting of PML-N general council for election of a new president. Sources said Nawaz and Punjab PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif did not attend the meeting.
Following the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked the PML-N to elect a new president as under Political Parties Order 2002 party head should be eligible to be member of parliament.
Nasar, who currently serves as the party’s senior vice president, was elected senator in 2015 after Iqbal Zafar Jhagra resigned from the senate to become the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governor.
Meanwhile, Senior PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan raised reservations over the appointment and questioned the reason for calling a meeting if the decision was already taken in Lahore. The former interior minister also asked why Nasar’s name was announced before the meeting of the PML-N’s central working committee. Nisar also said the interim president was chosen before the meeting and asked if the working committee meeting was called to just confirm his name. Nisar was also missing from the recently held PML-N GT Road rally and had said that no senior party leader was part of the former premier’s ‘homecoming’ caravan.
According to reports, Nawaz discussed Nasar’s interim presidency with the senior party leadership at his residence and is said to have received no serious resistance to the proposal.
He believes that there are other party leaders as well with the same concerns, sources told. It should be mentioned that Nisar had resigned from his ministry over similar complaints.
Published in Daily Times, August 18th 2017.
