Nawaz reclaims ‘N’ in PML-N after 6 years – Pakistan

Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was elected president of the PML-N unopposed on Tuesday after six years, a development that was widely expected after he was acquitted in all corruption cases against him last year.

Earlier today, the PML-N while sharing a video of the preparations for the party’s General Council meeting had said, “Lion returns to take his rightful place at the top.”

The PML-N supremo returned to the helm of the party six years after he lost the office of party president following a Supreme Court ruling in the Panama Papers case.

The intra-party elections were held during the party’s general council meeting, which was held in Lahore. No fewer than eleven party members had received the nomination papers for the top spot.

Earlier, the PML-N had announced to convene the meeting on May 11 for this purpose, but it was postponed as it coincided with celebrations of 26 years of Pakistan becoming a nuclear power.

At a press conference, PML-N Punjab President Rana Sanaullah – also Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s political aide – had hinted that Nawaz would be elected without a contest.

When asked if there were any other candidates against the elder Sharif, he said if any party member wanted to contest against him, they should come forward. Asked why the party did not adopt a democratic process to vote for a new president, Sanaullah said: “PML (Pakistan Muslim League) was a ‘londi‘ (servant) of power corridors. It was Nawaz Sharif who turned it into a public celebration.”

Nawaz was removed as party chairman in 2018 after a Supreme Court bench headed by then Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar ruled that a person disqualified under Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution cannot serve as head of a political party .

Just a few months before this decision, he had been disqualified for life by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers corruption cases.

The indication that Nawaz would take over again was given last month when members of the PML-N Punjab unit passed a resolution urging him to lead the party as he had been acquitted in all corruption cases after his arrival from London in October last year.