Apr 11: Following ouster of PTI chairman Imran Khan from the post of Pakistan’s Prime Minister, the Opposition’s joint candidate Shehbaz Sharif was on Monday elected as the country’s 23rd PM.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief had received 174 votes.
Before the voting process, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lawmakers had walked out of the National Assembly shouting slogans against the earlier opposition parties’ leadership and the US after their candidate Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced his decision to boycott the session.
According to Geo TV, the poll took place under the chairmanship of MNA Ayaz Sadiq, two days after the lower house of Parliament voted in favour of removing Imran Khan from office, following a nearly 14-hour standoff between the Opposition and Khan’s ruling party that started on Saturday morning.
Shehbaz had earlier contested for the Prime Ministership in 2018 as well in which Imran had received 176 votes and he could bag only 96 votes at the time.
Notably, no prime minister has completed full 5-year tenure in Pakistan’s 75-year history.
Pakistan, a parliamentary democracy for most of its history has had a total of 29 PMs since 1947.
For the unversed, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi was also in the fray for the Prime Ministerial post, however, ahead of the National Assembly Session earlier in the day, PTI members resigned en masse, effectively putting an end to the contention of Qureshi.
