Pakistan: Shehbaz Sharif elected PM unopposed after PTI MNAs announce boycott of Parliament session

Pakistan Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif was on Monday elected unopposed as the new Prime Minister after Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNAs announced the boycott of Parliament session for the election for the country's new prime minister.

Shehbaz, 70, was the only candidate left in the race after Qureshi's boycott of the election in the National Assembly.

In the House of 342, the winning candidate should get support of at least 172 lawmakers.

Shehbaz, the younger brother of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, received 174 votes - two more than the simple majority of 172.

He is the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan.

Earlier, PTI MNAs walked out of the session to elect the new prime minister. Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was PTI's prime ministeral candidate, said he announces to boycott the election.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan, earlier in the day, 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 comes after Imran Khan said that he will not sit in the assemblies with 'thieves'.

"The man who has 16 billion and 8 billion rupees of corruption cases, whoever selects and elects the Prime Minister can not be a big insult to the country. We are resigning from the National Assembly," Imran Khan was quoted as saying by PTI's official Twitter account.

PTI Member of National Assembly (MNA) Murad Saeed was the first member of the party who submitted his resignation to the Speaker of the National Assembly, as per ARY News.

Earlier in the day, the PTI held a parliamentary party meeting at the Parliament House in Islamabad, reported Radio Pakistan. The meeting was chaired by Imran Khan.

The voting on the no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government was held in the country's National Assembly late on Saturday night, with 174 members recording their votes in favour of the motion that ousted the Imran Khan government.

(With PTI inputs)

Published on: Monday, April 11, 2022, 05:01 PM IST