ISLAMABAD, July 13: The nomination of former finance and foreign minister Sartaj Aziz to the post of Pakistan Muslim League-N’s secretary general has created unrest among the party ranks. The party workers generally feel that the PML leadership has decided to sideline some of those party stalwarts who faced difficulties during the Musharraf regime.

The decision to give the key office to the 82-year-old technocrat from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was taken at a meeting of PML-N leaders presided over by Nawaz Sharif in Islamabad on Tuesday. According to the PML sources, the meeting also took major decisions about the much-delayed reorganisation of the party.

Mr Sharif is already set to become president of the party after 10 years when the party will meet on July 27 to elect new office-bearers at a general council meeting.

Although Mr Aziz will be formally named secretary general on July 27, the sources said he had been functioning on this position for the past one month and even attending his office at the party’s central secretariat in Islamabad.

Dawn has learnt through reliable sources that besides changing the secretary general, the party leadership is also set to appoint a new information secretary. The names of Senator Pervez Rashid and MNA Khurram Dastagir Khan are being considered for the post.

Incumbent information secretary Ahsan Iqbal has already informed the party that he does not want to continue in the position because of other engagements.

Former secretary general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra and Ahsan Iqbal are expected to be given some less important offices. Mr Jhagra is likely to become vice-president and Mr Iqbal additional secretary general.

The fate of veteran leader Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, sidelined by the party leadership because of his open criticism of some party policies, is unknown. The sources said that Mr Sharif might appoint him as senior vice-president of the party in an effort to appease the MNA from Multan who had suffered the most during the previous military regime.

Mr Hashmi, who was prepared to leave the party after a meeting between PPP dissident and his arch rival in Multan Shah Mehmood Qureshi with Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif a couple of months ago, is not happy over the leadership’s willingness to accept the former foreign minister in the PML-N.

Mr Hashmi also is opposed to the party’s move to woo a number of people from his hometown of Multan who had betrayed the party in the past and joined the PML-Q.

The sources said that Mr Sharif had turned down a request by Mr Hashmi to appoint his son-in-law Zahid Hashmi as president of the party’s Multan chapter.

Mr Hashmi was not invited to the PML meeting on Tuesday.

An annoyed PML-N member said it seemed that Mr Sharif wanted to `punish’ all those who had suffered during the Musharraf regime.

He said Mr Hashmi and Mr Jhagra had kept the party alive during the Musharraf regime but they had been sidelined only to appease some opportunists.

Another former office-bearer of the party, Siddiqul Farooque, who had also suffered during the military rule, is also likely to be sidelined. The name of Mohammad Mehdi, who actively conveyed the party’s feelings and concerns to diplomatic circles during the Musharraf regime, is nowhere on the list of people being considered for new posts. Mr Mehdi had joined the party at a time when it was facing the worst brutalities during the Musharraf regime.