Pakistan’s parliament votes in Sharif as prime minister

Pakistan’s parliament on Monday, elected Shehbaz Sharif as the country’s new prime minister after 174 votes were cast in the 342-seat assembly.

Acting speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq sai, “Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has been elected as prime minister.”

Shehbaz, 70, who has a reputation domestically as an effective administrator more than as a politician, is the younger brother of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

The younger Sharif emerged as the leader of a united opposition to topple Khan, a former cricket star who has claimed that the United States was behind his downfall, which Washington has denied.

Nawaz Sharif was barred by the Supreme Court in 2017 from holding public office and subsequently went abroad for medical treatment after serving just a few months of a 10-year jail sentence for corruption charges.

The newly elected minister will now form a new government that can remain in place until August 2023, when general elections are due.

“We are announcing we are all resigning,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi, former foreign minister and vice president of Khan’s party, said.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had submitted papers nominating Qureshi as its candidate for prime minister.
The mass resignations will require fresh by-elections in well over 100 seats.

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Reuters