Punjab bureaucracy, notorious for changing its loyalties at the spur of the moment has started looking towards PML (N) president Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister apparent before taking vital administrative and political decisions.
It may be recalled that the majority party PML (N) parliamentary party in the Punjab Assembly has elected Shahbaz Sharif, though not a member of the provincial legislature, as its leader to head the next elected provincial government.
Shahbaz Sharif, had been facing murder charges in an anti-terrorist court of Lahore in the 1998 Sabzazar "shoot out" case in which four persons in police custody were killed. The complainant Saeeduddin had accused Shahbaz of allowing the police in his capacity as chief minister of Punjab to kill his son along with other three men in a staged police encounter.
The returning officer and the election commission of Pakistan had rejected Shahbaz's nomination papers for both the National and Provincial Assemblies seats citing the Sabzazar case as one of the reasons.
However the ATC acquitted Shahbaz on Saturday last when Saeeduddin made a statement in the court that he was satisfied of Shahbaz's innocence which has now paved the way for his eligibility to contest the election. The PML (N) has claimed support of 156 members of the provincial assembly, which is comfortable simple majority to form the government in the Punjab, which inhibits more than 62 percent population of the country.
Informed sources told Business Recorder that though several grade 22 retiring federal secretaries like Kamran Rasul, Khalid Saeed, Mushtaq Malik, Sajid Hussain Chattha have managed to get contractual appointments of their choices from the caretaker federal government, however, in the Punjab, Shahbaz put his foot down and expressed his opposition to the issuance of notification of a three year appointment of the former inspector general police Ahmad Naseem as member of the Punjab Public Service Commission.
The IGP Punjab Ahmad Naseem applied for and got early retirement as grade 22 officer soon after announcement of 18th February general elections. Sources said that his appointment as a member of the Public Service Commission was almost through when Shahbaz stopped it.
It may be added that Ahmad Naseem was IGP Punjab when PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif made an aborted attempt last year to end his forced exile and come back in Pakistan to lead his party. However Nawaz was forcefully sent back to Saudi Arabia despite order of the Supreme Court to allow him to come back and live in Pakistan.
Meanwhile political analysts are apprehensive that the transfer of power might not be as smooth as expected and the 1993 tussle between the President and the Prime Minister might be replayed.
It may be recalled that at that time president Ghulam Ishaque Khan who had the power to dismiss the government under Article 58 (2) B of the Constitution, Punjab governor Altaf Hussain and chief minister Manzoor Wattoo were on one side and prime minister Nawaz Sharif and the Supreme Court headed by former justice Nasim Hassan Shah on the other side.
The Supreme Court had restored Nawaz's dismissed government but the tussle between the Presidency and the Prime Minister had almost brought the country to the brink of civil war when the then chief of army staff General Wahid Kakar intervened and sent the president and the prime minister home.
Sources say that President Musharraf's allies Chaudharies of Gujrat have asked the President to appoint their younger brother Wajahat Hussain as the Punjab governor so that Sharifs could be checked and Pakistan Muslim League (Q) was saved from the "forward blocks" and dismemberment.
They said if PPP did not share power with Musharraf's closest ally MQM in Sindh, then MQM, would also impress upon him to continue Ishratul Ibad as Sindh Governor.
Analysts say that PML (N) and the lawyers have prematurely threatened Musharraf's presidency. As his past track record indicates, President Musharraf could go to any length to ensure his survival like his predecessor General Yahya Khan before calling the assemblies into session and transferring power to the new elected governments.
Meanwhile PPP and PML (N) have agreed to call a joint parliamentary party meeting on 8th March to chalk out their common strategy and sort out details of their future political co-operation.
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