Shahbaz elected PML(N) chief

The Pakistan Muslim League (N) yesterday elected Shahbaz Sharif, younger brother of deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as its president, and named Nawaz Sharif as overall guide of the party.

In doing so it set aside Friday's decision of the Central Working Committee to retain the former prime minister as president.

"Shahbaz's name was proposed by party's chairman Raja Zafarul Haq and he was elected unopposed," the spokesman Siddiqul Farooq said.

"The decision to elect Shahbaz as party president was taken in consultation with Nawaz Sharif," he said.

The former prime minister who lives in exile in Saudi Arabia was ousted in a military coup by General Pervez Musharraf in October 1999.

Shahbaz, who is also in Saudi Arabia, was chief minister of the country's populous Punjab provin-ce during his brother's 1997-99 rule.

Farooq said some 600 members of the party's 800-plus general council participated in the ballot held to elect new office bearers ahead of October polls.