LAHORE: The PML-N has been hit by the leadership crisis as its two central decision-making bodies stand dissolved with the Supreme Court verdict of disqualifying Nawaz Sharif to be the party president.

The court ruling has rendered null and void all his decisions as party chief and thus the two central bodies – Central Working Committee and Central Executive Committee – formed by him on Dec 2, 2017 also stand dissolved.

The CWC comprises 109 members and the CEC 27, the latter panel unprecedented in the history of the League since inception of the party (as All-India Muslim League) in 1906.

The CEC had been formed under a special resolution of the CWC wherein the party president was authorised to set up the forum for taking certain important decisions to run the party affairs.

Interestingly enough, there is no notified secretary general of the party who, as per Article 16 of the PML-N constitution, is empowered to convene a meeting of the CWC to elect acting party president in case the office falls vacant due to any reason before expiry of the term.

The CWC is to meet within seven days of the vacancy of the president’s office and schedule within 45 days a meeting of the party’s 1,600-plus members of the General Council to elect new president.

A press release issued on Dec 2 did mention the name of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa serving governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra as secretary general but insiders say Mr Sharif had declined to sign the notification, for the office of governor is a constitutional slot and its holder cannot be office-bearer of a political party.

Ironically, Punjab Governor Rafiq Rajwana was also mentioned as a member of the CWC in the same press release.

A party official claims that in this situation the previous CWC, whose three terms had expired and thus the new body was nominated, will stand revived. He, however, admits that this body too will remain controversial as some of its members have either been pushed out of the party like ex-senator Nihal Hashmi or they themselves chose to go in political seclusion like ex-minister Raja Nadir Pervaiz.

The PML-N central information secretary downplays the issue saying the matter can be resolved easily. He tells Dawn by phone that a four-man committee comprising Railways Minister Khwaja Saad Rafiq, ex-information minister Pervaiz Rashid, adviser to PM Irfan Siddiqui and Mr Khan himself has been formed to suggest ways and means for resolving issues confronting the party.

These recommendations, he says, will be put before party elders scheduled to meet in Lahore on Tuesday and Wednesday for taking a final decision.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2018