Pakistan’s opposition leader (now PM) Shahbaz Sharif speaks to reporters outside the Supreme Court ahead of a hearing on a petition by the country’s prime minister to dissolve parliament, in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President and former Leader of the Opposition Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif was elected the 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan on Monday (April 11). PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq, who was presiding over the session after the resignation of Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri ahead of voting, said Shehbaz Sharif got 174 votes.
how it came out
Ahead of the voting, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislators resigned en masse from the National Assembly and walked out following a speech by former foreign minister and PTI candidate for prime ministership Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
Earlier, former Prime Minister Imran Khan had resigned from the membership of the House after meeting with the delegation of his parliamentary party.
PM in the making
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s younger brother was set to occupy the top post after he was ousted from power following a no-confidence motion by the former Prime Minister Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
As a result of the vote on the no-confidence motion, the Imran Khan-led government was defeated by 174 votes in favor of the no-confidence motion.
PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reveals Sharif’s candidature
Sharif’s candidature as the opposition’s choice for the post of prime minister was disclosed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari during a joint press conference of opposition parties on March 30.
He was elected as Prime Minister in the same National Assembly session in which Imran Khan was removed from office as per the order of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Historic decision by Pakistan SC
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Thursday called for a session of the National Assembly to be convened “before 10:30 am on Saturday” after quashing Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri’s April 3 verdict against antitrust in a landmark decision. Proposals on “constitutional grounds”.
Declaring the deputy speaker’s decision “contrary to the Constitution and the law and without any legal effect”, the Court set aside all subsequent steps, including the dissolution of the National Assembly, while reinstating Prime Minister Imran Khan and All federal ministers in their respective positions by 3 April.
The court also fixed Saturday’s session with the condition that until the motion is voted on, the session cannot be prorogued, and if Imran Khan loses the no-confidence vote, the next PM will have to do the same. was to be selected in the session.
It’s all about Shehbaz
Born in 1950 in Lahore to an industrialist family, Shahbaz Sharif is the younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who has served for three terms. Shahbaz Sharif has been the Chief Minister of the important Punjab province of Pakistan thrice.
After gaining a reputation as an administrator, Shehbaz Sharif had staked claim for the prime minister’s chair in August 2018. But the decision of the Bilawal Bhutto-led PPP to abstain from the PM vote in the last hour paved the way for a comfortable election. PTI’s Imran Khan is the prime minister. Shahbaz Sharif then settled as the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the National Assembly.
Education and political career
A graduate of Government College University, Lahore, Shahbaz Sharif initially joined his family’s steel business, while also becoming the President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries in 1985.
The Sharif family’s political fortunes increased significantly under Zia-ul-Haq’s dictatorship in the 1980s, with elder brother Nawaz Sharif being inducted into the Punjab provincial cabinet as finance minister in 1983.
Shahbaz Sharif entered the Punjab Provincial Assembly in 1988, while he was elected to the National Assembly in 1990. In 1993, he again stood for a provincial assembly seat and became the Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly.
He became the Chief Minister of Punjab for the first time after the 1997 elections. However, his tenure was cut short by the 1999 Pervez Musharraf military coup, after which he returned from nearly a decade-long political exile to become the chief minister of Punjab province again in 2008.
Charges against Shahbaz
Shahbaz Sharif was elected unopposed as the president of the PML-N in February 2018, after his elder brother and then prime minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from holding key positions after his involvement in the ‘Panama Papers’.
Like his elder brother, Shahbaz Sharif is also facing serious corruption charges. In December 2019, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) sealed 23 properties of Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Hamza, alleging money laundering.
He was arrested by NAB in September 2020 in the same case and imprisoned pending trial. In April 2021, the Lahore High Court released him on bail in a money laundering case.
Opposition unity favors Shahbaz Sharif
However, factors in favor of the young Sharif include opposition unity against Imran Khan’s ‘vendetta politics’ as well as the strategic support of the military establishment, which appears eager to oust Imran Khan from power, especially against him. Recently after his critical comments. America, including alleging foreign conspiracy.
With the Sharif family coming back to power amid rapidly deteriorating economic conditions and political instability in Pakistan, it remains to be seen whether the Shahbaz Sharif infuses new energy into the system, or whether the multi-tainted family continues to recourse to its old ways. keeps.