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Shahbaz Sharif elected Pakistan’s Prime Minister

Leader of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz Shahbaz Sharif won 174 votes

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif (center) AP Photo/Anjum Naveed

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif (center)

© AP Photo/Anjum Naveed

NEW DELHI, April 11. /TASS/. Leader of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) Shahbaz Sharif has been elected Pakistan’s 23rd Prime Minister.

The voting took place at the National Assembly (342-seat lower parliament house) on Monday and was telecast by local television channels.

Sharif won 174 votes.

Shahbaz Sharif, 70, a younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, who was Pakistan’s Prime Minister three times, was nominated by opposition parties on Sunday. He will be sworn into office later on Monday.

A political crisis broke out in Pakistan on April 3, when the opposition initiated a no-confidence vote to Prime Minister Imran Khan, who took office in 2018. Khan was accused of corruption and inability to improve the economic situation. President Arif Alvi dissolved the National Assembly after vice speaker Qasim Suri said that this vote would run counter to the country’s constitution.

However, Pakistan’s Supreme Court on April 7 recognized the parliament’s dissolution and the cancellation of the no-confidence vote to Khan as running counter to the constitution. The Court ruled that the lower parliament house should resume its work and conduct voting on April 9. In the long run, Khan lost his office and elections of a new prime minister were set for Monday.

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