ISLAMABAD, Dec 27: Pakistan Muslim League-Q general council would elect its new president and secretary-general in the shortest possible time, Salim Saifullah Khan acting secretary-general of the party told Dawn on Friday.

The deck has been cleared for Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain to become the all-powerful president of Pakistan Muslim League following Mian Mohammad Azhar acquittal.

He was already the unanimous choice of the party leadership when he developed personality conflict with the outgoing president, sources claimed.

Saifullah said, he was already acting secretary-general of the party, and Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Majeed Malik would take charge as acting president on Saturday who will convene the central working committee meeting shortly to decide on the convening of the general council.

He said under the constitution, the CWC was empowered to give approval for the convening of the general council for accepting resignations of the office-holders and election of the new ones.

A new election schedule would be announced after the general council meeting was convened, he said.

Earlier, Gen Malik had been assigned the same job as a stop- gap arrangement until the president’s election when the party’s top brass decided to clip Mian Azhar’s powers.

Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain had started calling the shots soon after the Oct 10 elections, after Mian Azhar lost the election.

Mian Azhar told this scribe recently that at the time he was forced to appoint Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as party’s parliamentary leader.

Party sources claimed that originally Chaudhry Shujaat’s decision not to take the PM’s post was based on the realization that the coalition government would be a fragile one and may fall apart any time. In the event he would win the support of the the MMA and fill the top slot.

In the meantime he would continue to call the shots, sources said.