https://arab.news/crrp4
- Sharif has the support of opposition parties and dissident lawmakers from ex-PM Khan’s party
- Was for years Punjab CM, has reputation as effective administrator, amicable ties with army
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly of Pakistan is scheduled to elect a new prime minister today, Monday, after Imran Khan lost a no-confidence motion brought against him by a joint opposition alliance on Sunday.
Khan became the first Pakistani PM who failed to survive the no-trust vote which his party described as part of an elaborate foreign conspiracy to bring down his administration.
Monday's electoral contest for the position of Pakistan's new prime minister will take place between the joint opposition candidate Shehbaz Sharif and the country's former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
This combination of photos shows former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (L) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz leader Shahbaz Sharif (R) address the national assembly in Islamabad on April 9, 2022. (Photo courtesy: @NAofPakistan/Twitter)
The former prime minister's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has already urged its supporters to launch protest demonstrations against the political change in the country.
Khan also announced in a Twitter post on Sunday that the country's freedom struggle was just beginning "against a foreign conspiracy of regime change" in Pakistan.
"It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy," he wrote.
Tens of thousands of his supporters poured out into the streets across Pakistan last night to demonstrate their solidarity with him and his administration.
The country's former information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain told journalists Sunday afternoon that a PTI core committee had decided its lawmakers should start resigning from the country's assemblies if Sharif's nomination papers for the position of prime minister were accepted.
"The core committee's recommendation to the prime minister is to resign from the assemblies," he said. "For that, we will start with the National Assembly."
Hussain maintained the PTI had nominated Qureshi as its candidate since it wanted to challenge Sharif's nominations who, along with other opposition leaders, has been facing corruption references against him.
However, the opposition has always denied corruption allegations against its leaders while calling the government's accountability drive politically motivated.
The National Assembly session to elect the new prime minister is scheduled to begin at 2pm today.