Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, President of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and former leader of Opposition, was elected the 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan by the National Assembly of the country on Monday. “Mian Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif has secured 174 votes,” announced PML-N leader Ayaz Sadiq, who was chairing the session after the resignation of Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri ahead of the vote. Ahead of the voting, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislators resigned en masse from the National Assembly and walked out of the National Assembly after a speech by former Foreign Minister and PTI candidate for prime ministerial post, Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Earlier, former Prime Minister Imran Khan resigned from the membership of the House after holding a meeting with his parliamentary party delegation. Imran Khan decided to tender his resignation as a member of the National Assembly ahead of the election for the new prime minister of Pakistan. This development camd after Imran Khan said that he will not sit in the assembly with “thieves”.
Shortly after being elected as Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif on Monday in his inaugural speech at the National Assembly announced a parliamentary probe into the “foreign conspiracy” to topple Imran Khan’s government and offered to resign if there is a shred of evidence to prove the allegation. “As the elected Prime Minister, I announce that a briefing be given to the security committee of the National Assembly on-camera in which Army leadership, DG-ISI, Foreign Secretary and the diplomat who wrote the ‘letter’ is present,” Sharif said, adding that, “we should not delay it as the entire country should know,” Prime Minister-elect Shehbaz Sharif said. He further said that he would resign from his position if even a shred of evidence is found proving the “foreign conspiracy” allegations. “I say it on behalf of all our members that I will resign if a shred of evidence is found that it was a foreign conspiracy, that we got support from a foreign power, if our involvement is proved anywhere, I say it with you as witness Mr Speaker that I will resign that very second and go home,” Sharif said.
The Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was ousted from power following the no-confidence motion against the regime. The voting on the no-confidence motion had resulted in the Imran Khan-led government losing with 174 votes in favour of the no-confidence motion. Sharif’s candidature as the Opposition’s choice for the Prime Ministership was revealed by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari during a joint press conference of the opposition parties on March 30.
He was elected as the Prime Minister in the same National Assembly session which saw the ouster of Imran Khan, in accordance with the order of the Pakistan Supreme Court. Pakistan’s Supreme Court in a historic judgement on Thursday had called for the convening of the session of the National Assembly “not later than 10:30 AM on Saturday” after setting aside the April 3 ruling of the Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri against the no-confidence motion on “Constitutional grounds”.
Declaring the ruling of the Deputy Speaker “to be contrary to the Constitution and the law and of no legal effect”, the Court set aside all the subsequent steps taken, including the dissolution of the National Assembly, while also restoring Prime Minister Imran Khan and all the Federal Ministers to their respective positions as of 3 April. The court also fixed the Saturday session with the conditions that the session cannot be prorogued unless the motion is voted upon, and in case Imran Khan loses the no-trust vote, the next PM had to be elected in the same session.