Shahbaz Sharif set to rule Pak Punjab province

ISLAMABAD - The brother of former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif has won an assembly seat in Punjab province, clearing the way for him to take over as chief minister of the country's richest and politically most important province.
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.
There is growing speculation U.S. ally Musharraf could be forced from office within weeks or months.
The Sharifs want him impeached or tried for treason, and the Pakistan People's Party leading the coalition government has drafted a constitutional package that would reduce Musharraf's role to ceremonial.
PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari met with Shahbaz Sharif on Tuesday and agreed to set up a joint committee to examine the package, which would be put before the National Assembly after the government presented its annual budget on June 10.
Uneasy partners
Shahbaz Sharif was not opposed in a by-election for a provincial assembly seat, due later this month, and has thus won it, an Election Commission official said on Tuesday.
"We have declared Mr Shahbaz Sharif the winner unopposed and he can now take the oath as a member of the assembly any time," said Kanwar Dilshad, Election Commission secretary.
The party has already said Shahbaz will be chief minister of Punjab, where half of National Assembly members are elected. He was chief minister in the 1990s and went into exile with his brother in 2000.
The Sharif brothers returned to Pakistan late last year as Musharraf's power began to ebb after he clashed with the country's top judge.
Though both brothers were excluded from the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections because of legal cases hanging over them, their party finished a strong second to that of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
Musharraf's allies were soundly defeated in the election.
Nawaz Sharif joined Bhutto's party in a coalition but withdrew his ministers from the cabinet after a dispute over how judges Musharraf sacked should be reappointed.
Though Sharif's party is still backing the PPP-led government, the two parties are likely to be rivals in the country's next election when, analysts say, Nawaz Sharif hopes to win another term as prime minister.
Nawaz Sharif is due to contest a by-election for a National Assembly seat this month.