LAHORE: Following removal of Nawaz Sharif from the office of prime minister and party chief, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has decided to appoint Senator Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasar as the party’s president, Senator Pervaiz Rashid has said. According to reports, the former information minister said a formal announcement in this regard would be made in the party’s Central Working Committee meeting in Islamabad on Thursday. Rashid said the PML-N reached a consensus to appoint the party president from a smaller province, and the decision was approved by Nawaz Sharif in a meeting in Lahore. Sardar Yaqoob, who hails from Balochistan, will continue to function as the party president and is not a temporary selection (as being reported in the media), added the PML-N leader. He is a close aide of Nawaz and was elected senator in 2015 after Iqbal Zafar Jhagra became governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He currently serves as the party’s senior vice president, who had stirred a controversy last year with his “poor are born to serve the rich” comment in a Senate committee meeting. On July 28, a five-member Supreme Court bench hearing the Panama Papers case of Sharif family’s offshore assets had disqualified Nawaz from the PM’s office for failing to declare a salary, which he had not withdrawn as an executive of Dubai-based company, as an asset when filing his nomination papers in 2013. The party has to comply with an Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) notice and elect a new president by August 25, the last date for the withdrawal of nominations in the NA-120 by-polls, which Begum Kulsoom Nawaz is contesting for her deposed husband’s seat. If the party fails to comply, Begum Kulsoom may not be allotted the PML-N’s election symbol – the tiger. Nasar’s elevation, if it is pushed through, will therefore serve the purpose until the PML-N elects a new party leader, another report said, suggesting it is a temporary elevation. Senior PML-N leader Raja Zafarul Haq had earlier said that a decision to elect Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif as the party president had already been taken. However, Shehbaz had previously also been touted as the next prime minister, while incumbent PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was to serve as a stopgap arrangement till the Punjab CM could be elected to the National Assembly. The plan changed, however, after some party leaders opposed the “unnecessary” disturbance in the existing political setting. Similarly, Railways Minister Khawaja Saad Rafiq told reporters after a party meeting on August 15, “We did discuss all available options for a new party chief but could not arrive at a decision … we decided to hold huddles for a couple of more days keeping in view various legal and political sensitivities involved.” Though he did not share details about the meeting, sources said that a new face, other than Shahbaz Sharif, was being considered so that the chief minister could continue focusing his attention on Punjab’s mega development projects. Published in Daily Times, August 17th 2017.