Maryam Nawaz and Amir Muqam are ‘PML-N’s CM candidates’ for Punjab, KP provinces

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

Captain (retd) Muhammad Safdar, husband of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Chief Organiser and Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz, has announced that his wife would be the chief minister of Punjab and senior party leader Amir Muqam will the same position in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) if his party won the Feb.8 general elections.

However, PML-N Secretary General Ahsan Iqbal said that it was clear that party supremo and former thrice-elected prime minister Nawaz Sharif would be the premier for the fourth time should the party win the polls, but it was yet not decided who would be chief minister of Punjab.

Safdar also announced that his father-in-law, Nawaz Sharif, will also contest elections for the National Assembly seat in KP’s NA-15 Mansehra that the son-in-law had been fighting and winning in the past. He told reporters that Nawaz Sharif will become the prime minister as an elected representative of KP to address its deprivation. He said he had received nomination papers for the former prime minister from the election staff.

Safdar said Amir Muqam would be the PML-N’s choice for KP chief minister, whereas his wife, Maryam Nawaz, is the party’s candidate for the Punjab chief minister office. A formal announcement in this regard would be made later, he added.

Safdar, who previously contested polls from NA-15, said he would not contest elections this time as he wanted to become a senator. “I will never decline the party’s offer for a Senate ticket,” he said.

PML-N President Shahbaz Sharif is likely to submit his nomination papers for Lahore’s NA-123, PP-158, and PP-164 seats. He is also expected to file papers from Karachi’s NA-242.

Maryam Nawaz is expected to file nomination papers for the NA-119 seat as well as two Punjab assembly seats in Lahore.

As the PML-N continued to dole out tickets to candidates, its parliamentary board led by Nawaz Sharif has conducted interviews of more than 400 party members interested in seats reserved for women.

Though the last date for the filing of nomination papers is Dec.22, the party still has not made a final decision about the nomination of women candidates for general seats.

“No decision regarding how many tickets to be awarded to the party women to contest the upcoming polls on general seats was made in the meeting. The leadership has deferred the matter,” a party leader who attended the meeting said.