Shehbaz Sharif elected as 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan

The Pakistani Parliament selected the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif to become the country’s interim prime minister on 11th April 2022, ushering in a new government after the ouster of Imran Khan and capping a week of political turmoil that pushed the fragile democracy to the brink.

The vote came two days after Mr. Khan, the former cricket star turned politician, was removed from office in a no-confidence vote in Parliament after he lost the support of top military leaders late last year.

The political crisis escalated last week after Mr. Khan demonized the opposition as traitors, and defied the Constitution to dissolve Parliament in an effort to block the vote — stoking fears that the country’s powerful military might intervene, as it has several times before in Pakistan’s tumultuous 75-year-history.

Mr. Sharif is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, who served as prime minister three times, and like other family members, he has been dogged by accusations of graft and malfeasance that were the focus of several corruption investigations. Now, Shehbaz Sharif’s rise to prime minister is seen in some circles as an implicit rebuke of Mr. Khan’s professed mission of dismantling Pakistan’s political dynasties and rooting out corruption in politics.
The motion to elect Mr. Sharif as prime minister was passed with 174 votes, two more than the requisite simple majority.

Mr. Sharif, 70, takes power at a time of deep political divisions and economic tumult in Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation home to 220 million people. His government faces a stalled economy that has struggled with double-digit inflation and immense national debt. And he has promised to pass electoral reforms to ensure that elections expected by the end of this year are free and fair.