Shehbaz Sharif has been elected Prime Minister of Pakistan Monday, following a vote in the country’s National Assembly.
Sharif has been appointed after the fall of his predecessor Imran Khan, who was overthrown by a vote of no confidence this Sunday.
Pakistan’s National Assembly gave 174 votes to the new chief executive, out of 342 seats, according to Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the acting speaker of the house.
“Allah has saved Pakistan today, thanks to the prayers of millions of Pakistanis,” said Shehbaz Sharif, calling his victory “one of rectitude, as evil has been defeated.”
The session was boycotted by the vast majority of members of Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI, Pakistan Movement for Justice), who also announced their resignation from the Assembly, as did the former prime minister.
The newly elected Prime Minister is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, who served three times as prime minister before being impeached in 2017 for alleged corruption and imprisoned, then released two years later on medical grounds.
Shehbaz Sharif received the support of the coalition that had voted no-confidence in Imran Khan, which included Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s small conservative religious party Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F).
His first task will be to form a government from within this majority. Former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was the PTI candidate in the election. He did not receive any votes, after he too resigned, denouncing an “illegitimate process.”
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