Nawaz Sharif’s brother all set to be Punjab CM

The PML-N has already said Shahbaz would be made the chief minister if he emerges victorious in the by-polls scheduled for June 26.

The party had earlier appointed a junior leader Dost Muhammad Khosa as the interim chief minister.

Returning Officer Muhammad Yaqub declared Shahbaz elected unopposed after which the PML (N) leader withdrew nomination papers from two more assembly constituencies in Lahore.

Shahbaz, who was exiled by President Pervez Musharraf along with Sharif after the 1999 bloodless coup, could not contest the February 18 polls as his nominations were rejected by election authorities.

The Election Commission disqualified him on the grounds that he was an accused in a case of extra-judicial killings that dated back to his previous tenure as chief minister from February 1997 to October 1999.

He was subsequently acquitted in the case by a court in Lahore.

The Sharif brothers, who were allowed to return to Pakistan in 2007 on a Supreme Court directive, had moved the Supreme court after objections were filed against their nomination papers for the by-polls were part of a conspiracy hatched by President Pervez Musharraf.

The Election Commission last week allowed Sharif brothers to contest the by-polls after a split decision on the validity of their nomination papers by a two-member election tribunal which referred the matter to Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammad Farooq.

Sharif, barred from contesting the Feb 18 polls and is now seeking election to the lower house of parliament.