ISLAMABAD – Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has been elected as the 23rd Prime Minister in an unopposed contest as former ruling party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf walked out from the National Assembly session.
Joint opposition members cast votes in favour of their unanimous candidate Shehbaz Sharif who was elected premier with a majority of votes. Sharif got 174 votes after PTI candidate Shah Mahmood Qureshi boycotted the polling process.
The poll took place under the chairmanship of Ayaz Sadiq as deputy speaker Qasim Suri walked out.
LIVE #APPNews : Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif expressing his views in National Assembly #Islambad @CMShehbaz @PakPMO @PresOfPakistan https://t.co/xwWLe8s4JP
— APP (@appcsocialmedia) April 11, 2022
As the voting ends, the acting speaker announced that “Shehbaz Sharif has secured 174 votes, and has been elected as the prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
Joint opposition lawmakers started chanting slogans in favour of PML-N leadership. Ayaz Sadiq then asked Shehbaz to move to the seat of the premier in the house and he moved to the treasury benches amid hullabaloo.
Speaking in his maiden address to the house, the seasoned politician thanked Allah for saving Pakistan. Sharif mentioned that it was the first time in the country’s history that a no-confidence motion against a prime minister had been successful.
The development comes days after former Prime Minister Imran Khan lost a no-confidence vote on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Shehbaz Sharif said the first thing he will do as a prime minister of Pakistan will be to unite the nation and end differences.
The 70-year-old politician was born in Lahore, he has served three times as Punjab’s chief minister. He previously held the post from 1997-to 1999, and later remained in exile in Saudi Arabia.
PML-N leader along with family spent years of self-exile in Kingdom, returning to homeland in 2007. He was then appointed CM for a second term after the PML-N’s victory in the province in the 2008 general polls.
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Sharif, the front runner of PML-N, was elected as Chief Minister of Punjab for the third time in 2013 and served his term until his party’s defeat in the 2018 polls.
Later, he was nominated as the President of the PML-N after his elder brother Nawaz Sharif was disqualified over corruption charges. He was then nominated as the Leader of the Opposition after the 2018 election.
The newly-elected PM contested the election on multiple seats in last general polls but won from NA-132 (Lahore) only. He also won two Punjab Assembly seats (PP-164 and PP-165).
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Previously, he retained the NA-132 seat and was nominated by the PML-N and other opposition parties as their nominee for the premiership but lost the contest to recently ousted PM Imran Khan, who bagged 176 votes.
Shehbaz Sharif calls for setting up national government in Pakistan
