Islamabad: Following the agreement between Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) to form a coalition government, Shehbaz Sharif becomes the new Prime Minister-elect and is scheduled to assume the office on Monday.
Younger brother of former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz, 72, will sworn in as the 24th premier of Pakistan.
Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led PPP have agreed on a power-sharing deal to form a coalition government.
According to media sources, President Arif Alvi will administer oath to Shehbaz in a ceremony at the President's House at 3 pm on Monday.
On Sunday, Shehbaz Sharif secured a clear majority in the newly-elected Parliament as the Opposition continued their sloganeering.
Shehbaz was consensually decided by the PML-N and the PPP as their Prime Ministerial candidate.
He received 201 votes in the 336-member Parliament while his opponent Omar Ayub Khan of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secured 92 votes.
In the February 8 polls, PML-N failed to get a clear majority despite being the largest party. It won only 75 out of the 265 contested seats.
Apart from PPP, Shehbaz was backed by the Pakistan Muslim League (Q), Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party, Balochistan Awami Party, Pakistan Muslim League (Z), Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P), and the National Party.
Born in September 1951 in a Punjabi-speaking Kashmiri family in Lahore, Shehbaz did his graduation from the Government College University, Lahore.
His family emigrated from Anantnag in Kashmir for business and settled in the village of Jati Umra in Amritsar district, Punjab at the beginning of the 20th century before moving to Pakistan.
(with agency inputs)
