Pakistan opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif elected as the Prime Minister

Pakistan opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the new Prime Minister of the country on Monday. He succeeds Imran Khan, who was deposed by a no-confidence vote on Saturday.

“Today, the almighty has saved Pakistan and the 22 crore people of the country. This is the first time when the vote of no-confidence motion was successfully passed. The people of this country will celebrate this day,” Sharif said after the election.

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Khan resigned as a member of the National Assembly before the election of the new Prime Minister, stating that he will not sit in the assemblies with “thieves.” His party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, boycotted the election, and MPs walked out.

The PTI had nominated Shah Mahmood Qureshi for Prime Minister.

However, just minutes before the session, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry stated that all PTI lawmakers would resign from the National Assembly and refuse to serve in any government formed under a “foreign agenda.” This was in response to Khan’s claim that the US was involved in a conspiracy with the opposition to destabilise his government.

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The decision was made at a gathering of the party’s lawmakers before of the prime ministerial elections, according to Chaudhry.

“A man who has one corruption case of 16 billion rupees and another corruption case of 8 billion rupees against him…for that person to be selected and elected as the Prime Minister, there cannot be a bigger insult to the country. We are resigning from the National Assembly,” PTI’s official Twitter account cited Imran Khan as stating.

Shehbaz Sharif, as well as his sons Hamza and Suleman Shehbaz, have been named in a high-profile money-laundering case in November 2020. Suleman currently resides in the United Kingdom.

Earlier today, a Pakistani court postponed Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz’s indictment until April 27 and extended their anticipatory bail, allowing the PML-N chairman to become the country’s new Prime Minister.

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The National Assembly held a no-confidence vote against Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government late Saturday night. The opposition had 174 votes to remove Imran Khan, who became the first Prime Minister to be dismissed by a no-confidence vote.

On Sunday, the process of selecting the new Speaker of the House began. Shehbaz Sharif’s nomination papers were accepted by the National Assembly Secretariat after the PTI’s objections — that he is embroiled in multiple legal matters – were dismissed.