Lagatar24 Desk
Islamabad, April 11: Shehbaz Sharif, the 70-year-old brother of previous Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the head of the opposition PML-N, was elected unopposed as Pakistan’s next Prime Minister.
He will succeed Imran Khan, who was ousted on Saturday following a no-confidence motion. Imran Khan resigned as a member of the National Assembly before of the election of the next Prime Minister, stating that he will not sit in assemblies with ‘thieves’. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party boycotted the election, and parliamentarians staged a walkout.
#WATCH | Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan opposition leader, elected new PM
Source: PTV pic.twitter.com/lYcOeYbwQp
— ANI (@ANI) April 11, 2022
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had put forward Shah Mahmood Qureshi as their Prime Ministerial candidate. However, just minutes before the session, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry announced that all PTI lawmakers will resign from the National Assembly and refuse to join any government formed on the basis of a “foreign agenda.” This was in response to Khan’s claim that the US was conspiring with the opposition to destabilise his government.
Chaudhry said the decision was made at a gathering of the party’s lawmakers ahead of the prime ministerial elections.
Meanwhile, the oath ceremony of Shehbaz Sharif likely to be held tonight.