Islamabad: Amid rifts within the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) beleaguered Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to appoint his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif —the incumbent Punjab Chief Minister — his successor if the Supreme Court disqualified him in the Panama scandal, political sources said.
Since Shehbaz Sharif is a member of the Punjab assembly, the PML-N will need someone to fill the post for an interim period before he could be elected as a National Assembly member to become eligible for the PM’s election. Reports said defence minister Khawaja Mohammed Asif was the top contender for this stop-gap arrangement.
In a series of meetings with close aides, Mr Sharif considered the possible names as replacement if Supreme Court disqualified him.
Sources said the PML-N does not want to call early elections so that all ongoing mega-projects could be completed by mid-2018. The party aims to put forth completed projects before masses during electoral campaign in bid to take credit and secure victory in 2018 polls. The second big motive behind the completion of tenure is to acquire two-thirds majority in the senate, said a PML-N leader.
Mr Sharif’s legal team believes it was highly unlikely the SC would disqualify him. They said the SC would forward the reference to National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq who would have to make judgment within 30 days otherwise, the case would fall in jurisdiction of Election Commission of Pakistan.
