Picture : Twitter / ANI
Source: PTV
Shehbaz Sharif, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president, was elected unopposed as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan by Parliament after rival candidate Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party will boycott the voting and staged a walkout.
Shehbaz, 70, was the only candidate left in the race after Qureshi’s boycott of the election in the National Assembly.
In the House of 342, the winning candidate should get support of at least 172 lawmakers.
Shehbaz, the younger brother of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, received 174 votes – two more than the simple majority of 172.
He is the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan. He has served as chief minister of the country’s most populous and politically crucial Punjab province thrice.
Former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chair Asif Ali Zardari had proposed Shehbaz’s name for prime minister’s position in a joint opposition’s meeting to replace Imran Khan through a no-confidence motion.
We want good ties with India but it cannot happen without a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir question. We will raise the issue of Kashmir on every international platform, Newly elected Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif was quoted as saying by ANI
In his inaugural speech Shehbaz further said, “When the forceful encroachment was done in August 2019 and Article 370 was abrogated, what serious efforts did we make…what serious diplomacy did we try…Kashmiris’ blood is flowing on roads of Kashmir and the Kashmir Valley is red with their blood.”
