Pakistan Elects Shehbaz Sharif PM For Second Term

Shehbaz Sharif has been elected Pakistani Prime Minister for a second term following a controversial election in February.

Pakistan conducted election on February 8 in an exercise that was characterized by allegations of large-scale rigging and delayed results.

However on Sunday, the National Assembly, as the lower house of parliament is called, met to elect the premier.

“Shehbaz Sharif is declared to have been elected the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq said.

Shehbaz secured 201 votes in the 336-member National Assembly, comfortably prevailing over rival Omar Ayub Khan, who won 92.

The winner needed at least 169 votes.

Khan was supported by the influential Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), the political group legislators belonging to former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party joined after the PTI was barred from contesting for allegedly violating election laws.

72-year-old Sharif served as prime minister until August last year when the National Assembly was dissolved to make way for a caretaker government, tasked with holding the national elections.

He is the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who founded the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) party, which is in alliance with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to form the government.