Shahbaz Sharif, brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, is set to take over as chief minister of Punjab, the country's richest and politically most important province, after winning an assembly seat unopposed. “As soon as we receive the report from the district returning officer (DRO) about the unopposed election of a candidate and the successful contestant files his poll expenses statement with us, we formally notify his election in the official gazette,” said Kanwar Dilshad, the election commission's secretary. Shahbaz Sharif is a top official of his brother's party, which came second in a February election but won the most seats in Punjab, home to half the country's 160 million people and the heartland of its political, military and industrial elite. Control of Punjab bolsters the power of the Sharifs' Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) party which is bitterly opposed to President Pervez Musharraf, the former army chief who ousted then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a 1999 coup. Shahbaz Sharif was elected uncontested to the Punjab Assembly. All the sixteen candidates, who had filed nomination papers against him, withdrew from the contest. None belonged to any political party. At the time of appointing Dost Mohammad Khosa as chief minister of Punjab, the Sharif brothers had made it clear that he was a stopgap and would vacate the position for Shahbaz after the latter's election as member of the Punjab Assembly. The final impediment in the way of Shahbaz Sharif's elevation as the chief minister for the second time after over a decade was dismantled when the two-judge appellate tribunal of the Lahore High Court delivered a split judgement on a challenge to his qualification to contest the by-election. The election commission declared Shahbaz and Nawaz qualified because the tribunal failed to take a consensus decision by the deadline given in the by-election schedule. – With Reuters __
