Ousted PM Sharif’s wife, Kalsoom Nawaz will contest from his constituency

We will win this seat with a big majority, say party leaders

New Delhi: Kalsoom Nawaz Sharif, the wife of ousted Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, will contest a special election for the parliamentary seat her husband was forced to vacate after the Pakistan Supreme Court disqualified him from holding office last month, party officials said.

“We have submitted nomination papers for Mrs Kalsoom Nawaz Sharif,” Sharif’s adviser Asif Kirmani told reporters in Lahore. Kalsoom Nawaz will be the candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party in the by-election to be held in about 45 days.

The announcement comes as Sharif led a “homecoming” caravan to Lahore that drew thousands of supporters protesting his removal by the top court over unreported income, a move he has described as unfair. Kalsoom Nawaz, who has never run for office, will be canvassing for votes in Sharif’s political stronghold inside Lahore’s Walled City, where her husband has never lost.

“We will, God willing, win this seat with a big majority,” Muhammad Safdar, Sharif’s son-in-law, who is also a member of parliament, said as he stood beside Kirmani. Sharif’s ruling party last week elected one of his loyalists, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, as prime minister. Party leaders had previously suggested that Abbasi would hold office until elections due next year, a reversal of earlier indications that Sharif’s younger brother, Shahbaz, would seek the vacant seat and later take over as premier.

Yasmeen Rashid of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf also filed her nomination papers for NA-120, the same constituency as Kalsoom Nawaz. Reports suggest that a total of 35 candidates have filed nomination papers for the by-poll scheduled for September 17.The scrutiny of papers will be held between August 15 and 17 and the Election Commission of Pakistan will issue the final list of candidates on August 26.

REUTERS via UNI