Maryam, the PML-N candidate for prime minister?

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders and workers belonging to the Nawaz Sharif camp have started hinting in gatherings and on social media that Maryam Nawaz will be party’s candidate for prime minister after the next general elections in 2023.

According to the party insiders, senior PML-N leaders who are close to Maryam Nawaz including Ahsan Iqbal, Marriyum Aurangzeb, Hina Pervaiz Butt and Azma Bukhari have started saying that Maryam will be the party’s candidate for premiership if PML-N comes to power.

“PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif has already made up his mind that he would either nominate Maryam Nawaz or some other loyalist rather than his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif,” a senior party leader told Bol News.

He added that currently, Nawaz is not announcing his party’s candidate for the prime minister as he wants to keep both the groups intact and save PML-N from any defections.

“If he (Nawaz) announces the name of his daughter or some other loyalist other than Shehbaz at the moment then there could be defection within the party which would be a decisive blow to the party,” another senior leader added.

The PML-N insiders said that Nawaz is planning to phase out his brother rather than taking abrupt actions as he fears that it might damage the party badly.

“Shehbaz might start weighing other options if it is confirmed to him at this moment that his elder brother Nawaz won’t be nominating him for the top position,” party sources said.

It is pertinent to mention that PML-N MPA Hina Pervaiz Butt had tweeted the picture of Maryam Nawaz on September 16 with the caption “Inshallah prime minister.”

Shehbaz camp’s game plan

A senior PML-N leader who is a part of the Shehbaz camp told Bol News that the former chief minister is also aware of the fact that his elder brother might not nominate him.

“He (Shehbaz) is currently on the strategy of wait and see as he doesn’t have any other option because he knows that currently Nawaz’s factor is the main force behind keeping their vote bank intact,” he said.

The party leader claimed that Shehbaz believes that the path chosen by his elder brother and niece of bashing state institutions may end their political career. He added that in such a scenario the former chief minister believes that the party would be left with no option but to nominate him and his son Hamza for the key slots.