LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf has apparently ruled out Aleem Khan for the job of Punjab chief minister because of ongoing National Accountability Bureau inquiries against him.

A hint was dropped by party chairman Imran Khan during his address to the Punjab parliamentary party meeting in Islamabad on Wednesday, where he said he would give Punjab a clean and honest leader. The new chief minister will be over and above petty groupings.

Until a few days ago, Aleem Khan was considered the strongest candidate for the job. Since he is facing NAB probe for his off-shore company and assets beyond his known sources of income and will be appearing before the bureau on Friday (tomorrow), it is learnt that Mr Khan is making frantic efforts to get himself cleared of off-shore company and other allegations from the bureau.

While ruling out Aleem Khan, the party’s MPAs and senior leaders Dawn spoke to are wondering who could be Imran Khan’s choice for the most important job in Punjab and consider Khan’s appeal very significant wherein he said everybody in the party should trust him and support his nominee for the job. “Trust me, I will give Punjab a clean and honest chief minister, who will be following party’s ideology instead of any petty groupings or personal interests,” Mr Khan told party’s MPAs-elect.

As they came out of the Punjab parliamentary party meeting at a hotel in Islamabad, most of the MPAs were trying to find answer to a million dollar question that “who will be the next chief minister of Punjab?”.

A party leader said Imran Khan’s assertion that “you will have to trust me” about his choice of “clean and honest” Punjab chief minister has baffled all candidates. Another leader said Imran Khan’s choice for Punjab was not visible enough and everybody was guessing about the new chief minister.

Referring to Imran Khan’s speech that the new chief minister would be young, a party leader said there was a need to explain the criteria of `young’ by Imran Khan himself.

While spirits in Aleem Khan’s camp were low, Mian Aslam Iqbal, Dr Yasmin Rashid, Fawad Chaudhry, Sibtain Khan and Raja Yassir Humayun were still in the race for the top job in Punjab. They believe that they still fit in the picture being drawn by party chairman for chief minister.

A source said that the new chief minister would be replacing Shahbaz Sharif in Punjab and the candidate must be mature and active enough to handle the complex issues in Punjab besides handling a strong opposition.

PTI Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi told media persons that the people of Pakistan had given a clear message in the July 25 general elections that they did not want to see any person as chief minister whose credentials could be questioned within the party and by the opposition.Pouring his heart out, Mr Khan also told Punjab MPAs to keep in mind that they would only be serving masses and any wrongdoing would cost them a lot.

While others are keeping mum, MPA-elect Raja Yassir Humayun from PP-21(Chakwal-I) says he has learnt about his candidature for chief ministership through social media and was ready to accept the challenge. He rejected all allegations being levelled against him and termed them mere propaganda.

Answering a question, he said Shahbaz Sharif was also inexperienced when he had taken over as chief minister for his first term.

He said the new chief minister must resolve people’s long-standing problems while bringing institutional change in the system in vogue.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2018