Nawaz mocks Imran-Zardari Senate deal

ISLAMABAD: A formal change of command took place in the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday when Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was formally ‘elected’ as the party’s fulltime president by members of the general council, four months before the next general elections. The younger Sharif had been nominated as interim president of the party last month following the removal of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from the office by the Supreme Court. During a meeting of the Central Working Committee in Lahore, the PML-N members had nominated Nawaz Sharif as lifetime Quaid (supreme leader) of the party, besides nominating Shahbaz Sharif as his successor. The party had convened the general coun- cil meeting to formally elect Shahbaz Sharif as the party president, as per the PML-N’s constitution and requirement of the Election Commission of Pakistan. This was the first major gathering of the party leaders and workers held after the ruling alliance faced a defeat at the hands of the opposition alliance in the elections for the Senate chairman and deputy chairman. And as expected, the two Sharifs used the occasion to vent their anger over the defeat and castigated their opponents, particularly Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari for joining hands and thus forming an unnatural alliance. In his speech Nawaz Sharif, without naming anyone, termed his opponents “hypocrites”, saying “your words and actions do not match”.And his younger brother concluded his speech by declaring that “Niazi and Zardari” could not prevail over them even if they joined hands. Addressing the mismanaged gathering after his “unopposed election”, Shahbaz Sharif said he felt honoured to have been chosen as the party president. Praising his elder brother while reading out the speech, Shahbaz Sharif said no one, including him, could even think of taking the place of Nawaz Sharif. “I believe Nawaz Sharif is the only politician in Pakistan who can be called Jinnah’s political heir,” he said amidst sloganeering by the charged party workers and members of the general council who had come to the meeting from all parts of the country, including Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.tions into a referendum, adding that he was facing NAB cases not because of any corruption, but because “I talk about the respect for people’s vote”.