Pakistan: Shehbaz Sharif has taken charge of a coalition administration for the second time as prime minister of Pakistan, having earned a resounding majority in the recently elected Parliament.
In the 336-member house, Shehbaz, 72, who was the joint candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), garnered 201 votes.
92 votes were cast in favor of Mr. Shehbaz’s opponent, Omar Ayub Khan of the imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). The new Parliament met amid protests and sloganeering by members supported by the PTI. On March 4, Shehbaz will take the oath of office at the Presidential palace in Aiwan-e-Sadr.
Previously, from April 2022 to August 2023, Shehbaz led a coalition administration as prime minister until Parliament was dissolved to hold general elections. Shehbaz Sharif, the recently elected prime minister of Pakistan, expressed gratitude to his coalition government partners for their confidence in him and for appointing him as Leader of the House.
“When my Quaid (leader Nawaz) was elected the prime minister thrice, the development that followed in the country is an example of its own. And it is not wrong to say that Nawaz Sharif is the one who built Pakistan,” Shehbaz said in his victory speech.
The 72-year-old leader of the PML-N expressed gratitude to his older brother Nawaz as well as all of his supporters for believing in him and designating him as Leader of the House.
In the 336-member parliament, Shehbaz, the joint candidate of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, garnered 201 votes.
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