LAHORE: More members of the House of Sharif are contemplating to step into politics as Salman Shahbaz, a son of Shahbaz Sharif, has also expressed his desire within the family circles to contest the July 25 polls.

A source in the family tells Dawn that Salman has shown his interest in taking part in the general election from the seats (NA-129 and PP-161) his father had won from Lahore in the 2013 vote.

A final decision on his plea will, however, be taken by PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.

The source says like his father Salman also enjoys a good repute with the ‘powers that matter’ and if allowed by the family to come into the electoral arena may prove a political asset for it.

Salman’s elder brother Hamza is already active in the politics since the whole family was in exile during the Musharraf era.

Hamza has not only been looking after certain governance affairs as virtually “deputy chief minister” by sitting at the 90-The Mall offices of the CM but also has been acting as strategist for all the by-polls, except the NA-120 (Lahore) where his cousin Maryam Nawaz saw all the matters single-handedly, the PML-N contested during the last five years.

Maryam is also considering running for the NA-125 (the former NA-120 seat re-demarcated subsequent to the 2017 census) or NA-127.

Published in Dawn, June 6th, 2018