‘Experienced’ Saad may outsmart Hamza for top Punjab slot

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Khawaja Saad Rafiq is striving to become the party’s Punjab central president by outsmarting Hamza Shahbaz in the race for the important party slot. Rafiq appears set to don the mantle of the central Punjab president in the upcoming intra-party election, while Sardar Zulfiqar Khosa is likely to become the party’s president in South Punjab. Sources said all was set to name Rafiq as the new central Punjab president on January 4 (today), however, he would have to wait as the Punjab election was postponed at the eleventh hour due to the absence of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who is on a visit to Turkey.
Rafiq himself is in India on a tour with his family. Hamza, considered the political successor of Nawaz Sharif, was once an unopposed candidate for the slot, the sources said. To groom and prepare himself for the high-profile slot, once held by Khosa, Hamza got busy with party organisation and official working of the CM’s Secretariat, the sources said, adding that some party lobbyists paved the way for his crowing as the provincial president. But Hamza’s gradual rise rang alarm bells for senior party leaders, who sacrificed a lot for the party and remained loyal through thick and thin. Another lobby, emerging as a dissident group, feared that Hamza would finally encroach upon the position of the party’s provincial president which Rafiq deserved due to his political acumen. A senior PML-N leader said this led to fissures and fights within the party and forced the PML-N leadership to keep delaying party elections for two years.
Also, Hamza’s ascent could no longer go on after Javed Hashmi, once an asset of the PML-N, defected to the PTI, expressing reservation over growing nepotism in the party. Fearing further desertions, the PML-N leadership redesigned its strategy to bring back senior leaders to the forefront by giving them leading roles in the party. Under the revised plan, Hamza would be awarded the position of Lahore president, the sources said.
PML-N Secretary Information Mushahidullah Khan told Pakistan Today that it was likely that Rafiq would be central Punjab president and Zulfiqar Ali Khosa would become south Punjab president.
Dispelling the impression, he said Hamza had never been considered for the slot of provincial president and predicted that he could be elected the Lahore president.