Islamabad: Pakistan Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, the 70-year-old younger brother of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has been elected as the new Premier of the country. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi was also in the fray for the prime ministerial post with his nomination papers approved Sunday. There was no doubt that Shehbaz Sharif would be Pakistan’s new prime minister once Imran Khan was ousted. Sharif has been the face of the opposition since the political battle to oust Imran started.
However, ahead of the session, PTI members of the National Assembly resigned en masse led by Prime Minister Imran Khan. With it Quereshi’s chances of becoming the prime minister ended.
Also read: Decks cleared for Shebaz Sharif to become Pakistan’s next prime minister
The session of the National Assembly was chaired by Ayaz Sadiq. He is a member of the panel of chairs after speaker Asad Qasier resigned from his post, as per a new by ‘Geo News’.
“174 members have recorded their votes in favour of the resolution, consequently the resolution for the vote on no-confidence against Mr Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, has been passed by a majority,” Ayaz Sadiq announced after the process of voting was completed.
In a historic first for Pakistan, Imran Khan was ousted as the prime minister of Pakistan from office through a no-confidence motion after the National Assembly debated on the matter for more than 12 hours and the political situation in the country took a critical turn Saturday night.