By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of the three times former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was elected as Pakistan’s prime minister for a second time on Sunday, after a tumultuous general election last month that left no clear winner and sparked allegations of fraud and rigging.
Sharif, 73, secured 201 votes in the 342-member National Assembly, defeating Omar Ayub Khan, a candidate backed by the jailed ex-premier Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, who received 92 votes.
Sharif’s victory was widely expected, as his Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party and its coalition partners had a comfortable majority in the lower house of Parliament. The election of Sharif marked the end of a political impasse that had gripped the country since the Feb. 8 polls.
The elections resulted in a hung parliament, with no single party gaining a majority. Khan’s PTI-backed independent candidates emerged as the largest bloc with 93 seats, followed by Sharif’s PML-N with 86 seats and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of the Bhutto family with 55 seats.
But Sharif managed to cobble together a coalition with the PPP and several smaller parties, claiming the support of over 200 lawmakers, enough to form a government. Analysts said his party also secured the backing of the powerful military establishment, which has a history of meddling in politics and overthrowing civilian governments.
Nawaz Sharif, who remains the leader of the PML-N, had initially planned to run for the premiership again but his party’s poor performance in the polls forced him to nominate his brother instead.
After the speaker of the National Assembly announced the results of the vote, Sharif hugged his brother and thanked him and the allied parties for their trust and support.
Sharif, who served as prime minister from April 2022 to August 2023, is widely seen as a pragmatic and experienced leader, who has a good rapport with the military and the business community. Analysts say that Sharif will have to balance the interests and expectations of his diverse coalition partners, as well as the demands of the military, which wields considerable influence over the country’s security and foreign policy.
Sharif’s biggest challenge, however, will be to revive the economy, which has been battered by the high inflation, low growth, and a heavy debt burden. He will have to negotiate a new IMF program, as the current one expires next month, and implement tough fiscal and structural reforms to stabilize the economy and attract investment.
In his maiden speech as the 24th prime minister of the country, Sharif acknowledged the challenges facing his government, especially the economic crisis that has pushed millions of Pakistanis into poverty and forced the country to seek multiple bailouts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“The parliament that we are sitting in, even the expenses of its proceedings are being paid through loans … Your salary and the salaries of all these people are being paid through loans,” he said, addressing the lawmakers amid ruckus and sloganeering by Khan’s supporters.
“The parliament that we are sitting in, even the expenses of its proceedings are being paid through loans … Your salary and the salaries of all these people are being paid through loans,” Sharif said in his almost one-and-a-half-hour-long speech.
He also paid tribute to the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, the founder of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which is part of the ruling coalition, and said that the nation would always remember his sacrifices.
Sharif vowed to make Pakistan “great” and “move forward” by reviving the economy, creating jobs, improving health and education, and strengthening the country’s relations with its neighbors and the world.
“We will not let this country sink into debt and despair,” he said. “We will not let this country be divided by hatred and violence. We will not let this country be isolated and ignored. We will make Pakistan a prosperous, peaceful and respected nation.”
He asserted the coalition government would play their role to steer the country out of the crisis it currently faces even though the “job is difficult but not impossible”.
“There are certainly difficulties but nothing is impossible if there is a will to do,” Sharif said.“It is a long journey, thorny journey, full of hurdles but those nations who surmounted these huge obstacles, they became again, one of the most growing nations around the world.”
PTI accuses Sharif of stealing mandate
Omar Ayub Khan, the leader of the opposition PTI party, launched a scathing attack on the coalition government led by Sharif, accusing it of rigging the elections and running a “fascist” regime.
Khan spoke in the lower house of parliament, where he challenged the legitimacy of the government, claiming that his party had won 180 seats in the 342-member assembly, according to the official results of each polling station, but the results were changed in favor of the ruling coalition in a later document that provides the consolidated results of a constituency.
“We did not get the seats that we should’ve gotten, so the election of speaker, deputy speaker and prime minister has become illegal,” Khan said. “I want to tell the people of Pakistan that the people of the PML-N and other parties sitting here appear to be defeated; their faces indicate that they have been given a stolen mandate. When a thief is fleeing after stealing, there is fear on his face.”
He recalled the “discriminations” faced by his party during the elections.
“You have snatched our electoral symbol from us, you have snatched the result of Form 45, but we stood, we are standing, and we will stand until Imran Khan takes the oath of prime minister,” Khan said, referring to the founder and former leader of his party, who is currently in jail on corruption charges.
Khan’s speech was interrupted as Pakistan Television (PTV), the state-run broadcaster, abruptly halted the live broadcast. All private channels were showing Khan’s speech from PTV’s feed, so they also were unable to broadcast his address.
The interruption occurred immediately after Sharif concluded his speech, and the speaker invited Khan to speak. However, as Khan began his speech, PTV stopped the live broadcast. Later, the deputy speaker of the house instructed the PTV to resume the live broadcast of Khan’s speech.
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