ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: A meeting of the general council of Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) will be held here on Wednesday to elect central office-bearers of the party. Talking to Dawn, PML-N secretary general Iqbal Zafar Jhagra said 850 members of the general council would elect office-bearers including chairman, president and general secretary.

Mr Jhagra, who is once again a candidate for the office of the general secretary, said so far no one had submitted nomination papers to contest the election against the present office-bearers, who had already filed their nominations.

He said Raja Zafarul Haq was contesting for the office of the chairman and Shahbaz Sharif was again a contender for the office of the party president.

Similarly, he said, there were four candidates for the four seats of senior vice-presidents. They are Makhdoom Javed Hashmi, Saranjam Zamindar, Mohammad Ali Khan Hoti and Mamnoon Hussain. Ahsan Iqbal has filed nomination papers for the office of the information secretary. He said Pervez Malik and Chaudhry Jafar Iqbal had submitted their papers for the offices of finance secretary and additional joint secretary, respectively. Mr Jhagra said the election committee would receive nomination papers till 9.30am and then start scrutiny of the papers in the presence of the proposers and seconders.

The five-member election committee is headed by former finance minister Sartaj Aziz and its members are Ghulam Dastagir Khan, Maimoona Hashmi and M. Hamza.

Exiled party chief and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will also speak to the general council members by telephone after the elections of the office-bearers.