For the second time, Shehbaz Sharif was elected prime minister of Pakistan.
For the second time, Shehbaz Sharif was elected prime minister of Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD: On Sunday, March 3, Shehbaz Sharif was elected to a second term as prime minister of Pakistan. He will lead a fragile coalition that has excluded supporters of imprisoned opposition leader Imran Khan.
Three weeks after widely reported election manipulation, Sharif was elected by 201 votes by recently sworn-in members of Pakistan's National Assembly.
Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, the recently appointed speaker of the National Assembly, stated that Shehbaz Sharif had been elected as prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
With 92 votes, Omar Ayub Khan defeated Sharif to become the preferred candidate for Khan's supporting MPs.
To prevent Khan's candidates from being elected, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the political organization of the Sharif family, teamed up with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), their longtime enemies, and a few other smaller groups.
Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of deceased former premier Benazir Bhutto, has been promised the presidency of the PPP, a dynastic party headed by Bhutto's family, in exchange for their support.
In the lead-up to the February 8 elections, former prime minister Khan was imprisoned and disqualified from running for office, and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was the focus of a wave of censorship and arrests.
Despite being obliged to compete as independents, PTI candidates were able to earn the most seats of any party.
However, they were unable to secure the necessary number of votes to form a government, which allowed Sharif to return.
A THREE-WAY CRISES
The 72-year-old Sharif was the leader of a remarkably similar coalition that drove out former cricket star Khan during his first term as prime minister in 2022.
Similar to his first term, Sharif will have to deal with three overlapping crises that are afflicting the country of nearly 240 million people.
During his first tenure, Pakistan nearly had an economic default; but, a last-minute agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) prevented the worst.
Sharif will be the target of unpopular budget cuts that the foreign lender is probably going to seek in exchange for a new agreement that will be required in the upcoming months. Inflation is still extremely high.
Additionally, security has been worse; Islamabad attributes an increase in attacks on the Taliban group's anticipated return to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.
PTI claims they were cheated out of a majority by rigging the ballot on election day, when mobile internet was shut down and results were significantly delayed, prompting analysts to warn of a crisis in legitimacy.
The influential military establishment in Pakistan has loomed large over the election, supporting the PML-N and launching an assault on the charismatic Khan and his supporters.
Even though the PML-N is once again in charge in Islamabad, its reputation has taken a serious hit because it had to form a wide coalition in order to take power.
Nawaz Sharif, the brother of Shehbaz and three-time prime minister, was predicted to take the lead when the PML-N anticipated stronger results from the polls.
However, Shehbaz—who was regarded as the military's preferred mediator due to his softer nature and pragmatic approach—took up the position. role after the outcome fell short of their expectations.
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