New Delhi: Pakistan’s National Assembly elected Shehbaz Sharif as the country’s 23rd Prime Minister Monday after his predecessor Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote two days ago.
The Opposition’s joint candidate and PML-N leader, Shehbaz, was elected unopposed as the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party boycotted the session shortly after it started.
PTI’s Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who had filed nomination papers for the post of prime minister, led his colleagues out of the National Assembly before the vote. Several PTI members also put up their resignations on social media.
“PTI’s presence in Parliament,” Imran Khan said, “would legitimise a government that PTI refuses to acknowledge as a democratically-elected entity.”
The PTI’s official Twitter account quoted Khan as saying, “A man who has one corruption case of 16 billion rupees and another corruption case of 8 billion rupees against him… for that person to be selected and elected as the Prime Minister, there cannot be a bigger insult to the country. We are resigning from the National Assembly.”
Pakistan’s former interior minister Sheikh Rasheed, according to ANI, said sitting in the Assembly would have only strengthened Shehbaz.
“Imran Khan supported my suggestion during our parliamentary party meeting (before the session convened),” he said, adding, Khan would visit Peshawar on Wednesday.
Rasheed said Khan would call citizens every Sunday to “come out against this foreign conspiracy”.
The oath-taking ceremony – administered by President Ariz Alvi – would take place at the Presidential Palace later Monday, Geo News reported.
Who is Shehbaz Sharif?
Shehbaz is the chief of the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz, and as Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, has led the charge against Imran Khan in the last few weeks.
He is the younger brother of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif. A graduate of the Government College University, he initially joined the family’s steel business and became the president of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce in 1985.
He joined politics in the late 80s when Zia ul Haq was leader. Elder brother Nawaz was the finance minister in the Punjab Provincial Cabinet.
He was part of the Punjab Provincial Assembly in 1988 and was elected to the National Assembly in 1990.
After a four-year stint as Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly, Shehbaz became chief minister of Punjab for the first time in 1997.
His term was cut short by the military coup of Perwez Musharraf in 1999. Both brothers spent several years in exile in Saudi Arabia. He returned in 2007 and was elected Punjab chief minister again a year later. Shehbaz has been chief minister of Punjab province three times.
He became president of the PML-N in 2017 when then Prime Minister Nawaz was barred from holding any prominent posts after his name surfaced in the Panama Papers. The Supreme Court had ruled Nawaz was not “eligible to be an honest member of Parliament” and should resign as prime minister.
In 2018, Shehbaz had also staked claim to the prime minister’s chair, but ally Pakistan Peoples Party abstained from the PM vote in the last hour.
Shehbaz has been the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly ever since.
Like his brother Nawaz, Sharif too faces severe corruption charges.
The National Accountability Bureau has frozen properties belonging to Shehbaz and son Humza for money-laundering. He was arrested in September 2020 in the case and is out on bail.
Shehbaz is friendly with Pakistan’s powerful army and also considered a friend of China.
His attitude towards the US differs sharply from his predecessor. He reportedly said in an interview: “Beggars can’t be choosers. We have to feed our nation. We have to send our children to school. We can’t fight against someone, can’t raise slogans against others.”
Prime Minister Shehbaz’s immediate challenges? Rising inflation and dipping foreign exchange reserves.
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