Pakistan Parliament Elects Shahbaz Sharif as PM

Date: 11 April 2022 - 21:48

News ID: ۱۰۱۵۲۹

ISLAMABAD (Dispatches) -- The Pakistani parliament on Monday elected Shehbaz Sharif as the country’s new prime minister after his predecessor Imran Khan was removed and most of his party’s legislators resigned from the National Assembly.

Pakistani lawmakers elected 70-year-old Shehbaz Sharif, who has a reputation in Pakistan as an effective administrator more than as a politician.

Sharif is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, who served as the country’s prime minister for three non-consecutive

terms and was finally removed from office by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in 2017.

Shehbaz emerged as the leader of a united opposition to oust Khan, who claimed that he had been the victim of a “regime change” conspiracy involving the United States.

In his speech, Sharif said Pakistan has to build relations with United States, adding the country also wants better relations with India, but needs a solution to the Kashmir dispute.

Shortly before voting started on Monday, lawmakers from Khan’s party - Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – stepped down en masse from the Lower House of the parliament to express their dissent against the expected formation of a government by his political opponents.

“We are announcing we are all resigning,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi, former foreign minister and vice president of Khan’s party, said in a speech in the assembly, meaning that fresh by-elections in well over 100 seats will be required.