ISLAMABAD - Te Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Central General Council meeting, scheduled for March 6, has been rescheduled for March 13 when the party would elect its new president.

PML-N spokesman Senator Asif Kirmani in a statement said on Sunday that the party’s Central General Council meeting due on March 6 to elect the party’s new president had been rescheduled for March 13.

The party leadership had already notified an election board under the head of Federal Law Minister Chaudhry Mohammad Bashir Virk to conduct the elections for new party chief. The other members of the board include Raja Ishfaq Sarwar from Punjab, Shah Mohammad Shah from Sindh, Pir Sabir Shah from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sardar Yaqoob Khan Nasir from Balochistan.

Some party insiders said that the election for the new party chief was put off due to the leadership’s engagement in the elections for chairman and deputy chairman Senate which would be held on March 10.

Most likely, the acting party President and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif would be elected as the permanent party head.

Sources in the party said that as the former prime minister and life-time party chief Nawaz Sharif had proposed the name of Shahbaz for the acting president of the party and secured its approval from the Central Working Committee it was highly likely that he would be made the permanent president of the party.

The party sources further said that efforts would be made to get Shahbaz elected unopposed.