PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif has been elected the 24th prime minister of Pakistan. He secured 201 votes in the national assembly on Sunday while PTI candidate Omer Ayub Khan got 92, sources said.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz will lead the ruling coalition under Shehbaz Sharif, they added. Candidates backed by jailed former premier Imran Khan have protested against the result and called for his release.
After the national assembly accepted the nomination papers of Shehbaz from PML-N and Omer from PTI, it was clear that the former would become the PM with the help of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), said the sources.
The development comes after what is being seen by observers as the most rigged elections in Pakistan, with the army pushing all the buttons. The polls were marred by a mobile internet shutdown, arrests and violence in the run-up, and unusually delayed results.
According to sources, PML-N leader and Shehbaz’s brother Nawaz Sharif refused to lead the government in the absence of an absolute majority.
During the nomination filing process too, PPP came forward and backed Shehbaz Sharif, they said.
PTI candidate Omer has filed objections against Shehbaz being elected PM, saying he was gifted his member of the national assembly (MNA) seat and there was a problem with his form 45 (‘result of count’ form).
PML-N has the support of 205 MNAs and needed 169 to win the prime minister’s chair.
CNN-News18 was the first to report that Shehbaz would lead the new Pakistan government with the help of the PPP.
All eyes will be on the election of the President with Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians chief Asif Ali Zardari seeing the position for himself or his sister, Faryal Talpur, said sources.
Pakistan army has shown some resistance to Zardari getting the post, the sources said, and so he has proposed his sister’s name as well.
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