Shehbaz no less than PM material, Maryam affirms

SHEIKUPURA: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz on Sunday categorically stated Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif is the most qualified party leader to become the prime minister of Pakistan.

Speaking to a private media outlet atop a rally stage in Sheikhupura, Maryam said that she “500 per cent agrees” with the decision of party chief Nawaz Sharif over the nomination of Shehbaz as the next premier.

During the rally, Maryam took the stage before her father asking whether his supporters agreed with the decision to disqualify him as prime minister.

She commended the citizens of Sheikupura for arranging a successful rally which seemed to cover every part of the city. “I have brought Nawaz’s case to your court today. Do you accept his disqualification, will you let this continue?” Maryam asked the gathering.

She lamented that her father was removed from office, thrice and questioned the neutrality of judges who “speak against Nawaz and then sit on the bench hearing his case”. In an apparent reference to the Supreme Court’s powers of intervention, she asked where the Article 184 (3) of the Constitution [which empowers Supreme Court’s intervention in public welfare/human rights issues] disappears when military governments are formed.

Maryam’s statement has quashed all the rumours of a rift within the Sharif family that had been making rounds in the media following the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif in Panama Papers case.

She said Shehbaz is the most senior leader and most qualified person in the party to hold the executive post of the premier, adding that the party will make it final in a meeting after further deliberations.

After the ouster of Nawaz Sharif, the rumours had been circulating in the media regarding fissures among the party leadership over the issue of Nawaz’s successor, with Maryam being the heir apparent.

In an interview with the New York Times in October 2017, Maryam Nawaz had hinted that she might run for prime minister in the general elections 2018, saying that “people around me tell me I was meant for a certain role”.

The publication had reported that Maryam hesitated to directly address whether she had ambitions to become prime minister, but she said that it was her family’s decision that she lead the party.

It was being speculated that Maryam Nawaz will inherit the top post of the party and the country, after which tensions had emerged in the party, with senior leader Chaudhry Nisar visibly distancing himself from the party as well.

Undermining Maryam once again, the PML-N leader, Nisar, last week had stated that he couldn’t work under the leadership of Maryam Nawaz. Nisar’s statement holds importance as he is a close associate of the Punjab CM.

When questioned about his previous remark that Maryam lacked the experience to lead the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Nisar, in turn, asked whether he had said anything wrong at the time.

After his disqualification, Nawaz had announced that Shehbaz would be the prime minister for the remaining 10-month tenure of the party after interim arrangements of 45 days for which Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was elected premier. However, Abbasi remains the PM, which had further strained the relations within the party.

The rift that had emerged with the Panama case and Sharif’s ouster had escalated during the by-polls of NA-120 in Lahore—a seat that fell vacant after Nawaz’s disqualification.

The campaign was important as the PML-N had been looking to redeem itself; but more importantly, it was being said that Maryam was being prepared for the leadership role in footsteps of her father.

This fissures had been seen tensions intensified between Hamza Shehbaz—son of Shehbaz Sharif—who had remained absent from the by-poll campaign being run by Maryam on her own.

Hamza Shehbaz was to campaign for his party in the NA-120 by-election; however, he went abroad all of a sudden. After his departure, Maryam had taken the charge and extensively campaigned for her mother, whom the party fielded as its candidate. However, Nawaz and Shehbaz both had tried to bridge the gap by directing their children to keep close contacts.