ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: The question as to who would lead the Pakistan Muslim League (N) in the October general election will be thrashed at a meeting of the central working committee (CWC) of the party here on Friday.

“There is no bar on former prime minister Mian Nawaz Sharif to contest election for the office of party president,” PML (N) Senior Vice-President Syed Zafar Ali Shah told Dawn by phone on Thursday.

He described all the laws enacted by the military government to keep the former prime minister out of politics as black laws, and said the “field is still open for him (Mr Sharif).”

The CWC meeting will constitute an election commission for holding elections to all the central offices of the party at the general council meeting scheduled be held on Saturday.

Party Chairman Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, who is also aspiring to lead the party in the elections, had earlier indicated that Mr Sharif might not return to the country.

However, a strong group among the party is of the view that election of either Mian Nawaz Sharif or some other member of his exiled family as the party president would guarantee better prospects for the party in the elections.

A member from the personal staff of the former prime minister disclosed to Dawn that some members of the Sharif family would shortly return to lead the party in the polls.

When contacted, the party’s information secretary, Siddiqul Farooq, said there was a unanimous view at all levels of the party that the office of the party president should remain in hands of the Sharif family.

He remarked that Mr Sharif had already given complete freedom to the party members to elect any one from amongst themselves for the office of the party president.

“Mian Sahib has conveyed that he would respect the party decision,” Mr Farooq said, adding that the CWC would approve constitutional amendments to be made in line with the Political Parties Order 2002. He said the amendments would be presented before the general council meeting.

Different government functionaries, including the interior minister, had repeatedly stated that no member of the Sharif family could return before a period of 10 years in exile as stipulated in an agreement.

A government official maintained that only the sentence of Nawaz Sharif in the plane hijacking case had been remitted and that he was still a convict.

These issues would also be discussed at the CWC meeting and the decision would be taken in light of those hard realities, a party source informed Dawn on the request of anonymity.

The PML (N), however, has never accepted the government’s claim that the Sharif family had gone into exile after signing an agreement with the military government.