The London meeting of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz(PML-N) top leadership has decided to put forward Shahbaz Sharif as prime
ministerial candidate after the 2018 elections if party President Nawaz Sharif
remains ineligible to run for office, Dawn reported today.
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| Shahbaz Sharif with Nawaz Sharif in a London meeting |
The meeting, held on Monday, was
presided over by Nawaz Sharif and attended by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan
Abbasi, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Federal Ministers Ishaq Dar,
Khawaja Asif and Ahsan Iqbal.
The decision “coincided” with a
full-page result of a “national opinion survey” published in an Urdu daily in
which 60 per cent of respondents declared Shahbaz Sharif as the best choice for
the prime ministerial job. According to the survey, conducted by a little known
US institute Global Strategic Partner in September, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan was the choice of 47pc of total 4,540 respondents from
across the country.
A senior PML-N leader told Dawn here
on Tuesday that the decision to pitch the Punjab chief minister for the office
had been taken in view of the fact that disqualification of the elder Sharif
under the Supreme Court orders in the Panama Papers case might not be
overturned by the vote due after about nine months.
The PML-N official, considered close
to the Punjab chief minister, said Shahbaz Sharif had always been the party’s
candidate for the office of prime minister after his brother’s ouster.
 top leadership has decided to put forward Shahbaz Sharif as prime ministe...){kind=link}