The Sharifs appear to be in trouble over the controversial party reorganisation process, as PML-N senior leader Naeem Mir has challenged all appointments to various party offices in Punjab with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), calling them a severe violation of the party’s constitution and the Political Parties Act.
Mir, former PML-N Punjab additional information secretary, Lahore finance secretary and general secretary (trader wing), submitted a letter to the ECP asking it to take immediate action by annulling all illegal appointments on offices of the PML-N president, general secretary and others, as none of them went through the due election procedure.
The letter sent to the ECP has stirred up a storm within the PML-N circles.
The party has already suffered setbacks in the form of Javed Hashmi Inamullah Niazi and Sir Anjam Khan’s departure.
“The current resentment on part of another senior leader is a bombshell for the party and has finally proven to be a crack in the Sharifs’ armour,” source in the PML-N central secretariat said.
It was the second time that Mir, once a close friend of newly-elected senator Zulfiqar Khosa, threw down the gauntlet against the Sharifs to get his due right as a member of the party Central General Council, the source added.
He had parted ways with the PML-N on December 26, 2011 after getting disgruntled by the treatment meted out to him by MNA Hamza Shahbaz, son of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
Mir had sent copies of his resignation to the party chief, Shahbaz, Zulfikar Khosa, Ashfaq Sarwar and MNA Saad Rafique.
The resignation letter said, “I gave 16 years to the party but what arrogant Hamza Shahbaz did to me in the last four years is unbearable.” He had said that the CM’s son used to keep him and others standing outside his office for hours.