Shehbaz Sharif Elected New PM of Pakistan

Following Imran Khan's ouster by a no-confidence vote on Sunday, parliament elected Shehbaz Sharif as Pakistan's next prime minister on Monday.

Following the country's week-long constitutional turmoil, Sharif was the clear favourite to win. He is the younger brother of former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who served in that position three times.

Following Sunday's no-confidence vote that ousted former Prime Minister Imran Khan from power, Pakistan's lower house of parliament assembled Monday afternoon to elect a new prime minister.

Sharif led the united opposition push to demand Khan's resignation, a former cricketer who claimed he was being deposed by a Washington-backed plan. Khan's charges have been refuted by the United States.

Khan's party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has nominated former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to succeed Khan as Prime Minister.

When Qureshi was not appointed as the new prime minister, the party's members resigned en masse. Their resignations will necessitate elections to fill their seats.

Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz Sharif's brother, was barred from holding public office by Pakistan's Supreme Court in 2017. After spending only a few months of a 10-year prison sentence on corruption charges, he departed the country for medical treatment.

Pakistan's National Accountability Bureau seized almost two dozen properties from Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza, accusing them of money laundering, in 2019.

In September 2020 he was arrested and held for six months but released on bail while awaiting trial, which is still pending.