Pakistan’s Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as the country's prime minister on Monday at the President House, officially taking over from ousted premier Imran Khan. The Parliament elected unopposed Shehbaz Sharif as 23rd prime minister of the country, bringing to an end the political uncertainty since a no-confidence motion was introduced against Imran on March 8.
Shehbaz, 70, was the only candidate left in the race after former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party will boycott the voting and staged a walkout.
In his maiden address to the house as the prime minister, Shehbaz said that it was the first time in Pakistan’s history that a no-confidence motion against a prime minister had been successful. “And good has prevailed over evil,”
he said.
“Pakistan's friendship with China is unwavering. Government will speed up Beijing-backed projects in the country,” he added.
Invoking Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s allegations of foreign conspiracy, Sharif said, “if there is any shred of evidence that we plotted with foreign powers, I will resign immediately”.
Khan decided to tender his resignation as a member of the National Assembly. This development comes after Imran Khan said that he will not sit in the assemblies with ‘thieves’.
“A man who has one corruption case of 16 billion rupees and another corruption case of 8 billion rupees against him...for that person to be selected and elected as the Prime Minister, there can not be a bigger insult to the country. We are resigning from the National Assembly," Imran Khan was quoted as saying by PTI's official Twitter account.
Nawaz Sharif to return after Eid
Deposed Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to return from London next month after Eid, a senior PML-N leader has said, amid a whirlwind of political developments that have embroiled the country following Imran Khan’s ignominious ouster from power.
Several corruption cases have been launched by the government of Prime Minister Khan against the 72-year-old supremo of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz since his ouster from the office by the Supreme Court in July 2017 in the Panama Papers case. Sharif in November 2019 left for London after the Lahore High Court granted him a four-week permission allowing him to go abroad for his treatment.
Eid will be celebrated in the first week of May.
Stocks jump most since 2020
Pakistan stocks rallied despite a broad equity selloff in Asia on hopes that the next prime minister would bring political stability.
The KSE-100 Index jumped 3.8 per cent on Monday to post its biggest gain since April 2020, after former cricket star Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote. The nation’s currency also climbed.
Money laundering case against PM, son deferred till april 27
A Pakistani court on Monday deferred until April 27 the indictment of joint Opposition’s prime ministerial candidate Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz in a high-profile money laundering case and also extended their pre-arrest bail till the same day.
Shehbaz and his sons – Hamza and Suleman – were booked by FIA in November 2020 under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Anti-Money Laundering Act. Suleman is absconding and residing in the UK.
The FIA investigation has detected 28 benami accounts, allegedly of the Shehbaz family, through which an amount to the tune of PKR 14 billion was laundered from 2008 to 2018. The FIA examined the money trail of 17,000 credit transactions and the amount was kept in “hidden accounts” and given to Shehbaz in his personal capacity.
PM Khan’s party resigns
Legislators from ousted Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan’s party announced they are resigning en masse from the lower house of parliament in protest against the formation of a new government by his political opponents. “We are announcing we are all resigning,” Shah Mahmood Qureshi, former foreign minister and vice president of Khan's party, said in a speech.
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