The PML-N's top brass on Thursday decided to get MNA Kulsoom Nawaz elected as the next party chief, a source privy to the development told DawnNews.
Ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif held a meeting at Punjab House for consultations on the new leader of the party a day after he was removed as PML-N head following a Supreme Court judgement that also nullified all official party decisions taken by Sharif since his disqualification in July last year.
The participants of the meeting agreed to get Sharif's wife Kulsoom — who is undergoing treatment for cancer in London — elected as the party's new president, the source told DawnNews.
According to the source, Sharif spoke during the meeting for only 10 minutes and listened to party leaders for the rest of the time.
None of the participants suggested that the younger Sharif brother, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, should be made the party's president, the source claimed.
Earlier today, PML-N Chairman Zafarul Haq had told reporters that PML-N's central working committee will appoint the party's interim president next week.
Kulsoom was diagnosed with early-stage lymphoma in August last year and has been in London since, where she has undergone multiple surgeries and at least five chemotherapy sessions.
She had left for the United Kingdom before she could begin campaigning for the by-poll on NA-120 seat that was vacated after her husband's disqualification.
Due to her diagnosis, Kulsoom could not return to Pakistan and her campaign was run by her daughter Maryam Nawaz instead. She won the elections after a close contest with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf's Dr Yasmin Rashid.
