PML-N names two candidates in place of barred Maryam

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party has named two candidates to replace former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz after she was barred from contesting the upcoming general elections over graft.

The party’s Lahore wing president Ali Pervez Malik will now contest from the NA-127 constituency in the city, while Irfan Shafi Khokhar has been issued a ticket for the Punjab provincial assembly seat of PP-173.

On Friday an accountability court hearing the Avenfield properties case sentenced Sharif to 11 years in prison and fined him £8 million, while Maryam was sentenced to eight years with a £2 million fine for corrupt practices. Maryam’s husband and PML-N lawmaker Capt (retd) Mohammad Safdar was handed a sentence of a year in jail.

Under the sentence, Maryam and Safdar will be ineligible to contest polls for ten years after the completion of their jail terms.

On Sunday, Safdar announced he would surrender himself before the authorities in Rawalpindi. “Initially I had planned to surrender in Mansehra (in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province) but will be surrendering from a different city in accordance with the party’s plan,” he said in an audio message.

Accompanied by party supporters, he headed towards the party’s office to hand himself over to the local police.

Sharif and Maryan are in London to care for his wife Kulsoom Nawaz, who is being treated for cancer and is in a coma. They have said they will return to Pakistan by July 13 to file an appeal.