The Election Commission of Pakistan on Tuesday declared that Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain would remain the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q.
A five-member bench of the ECP, headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, in its reserved verdict rejected the PML-Q Central Working Committee’s decision to remove Shujaat Hussain from the party presidency.
The electoral watchdog also stated that the PML-Q central working committee’s move to remove Shujaat as party chief was illegal and declared it null and void.
It further said that the elections announced by the central committee were also null and void. Earlier, the ECP had reserved its decision on Shujaat’s plea.
In July last year, Pervaiz Elahi’s group had decided to remove Shujaat and General Secretary Tariq Bashir Cheema from the party’s top posts. Ch Shujaat had filed an application with the ECP challenging the decision.
Recently, rifts between the PML-Q widened as the party elected Wajahat Hussain as its central president, formally ending the 19-year rule of his brother Chaudhary Shujaat Hussain, while retaining former chief minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi as the party’s Punjab president.
