Islamabad: Pakistan lawmakers on Monday elected Shehbaz Sharif as the country's new prime minister following the weekend ouster of Imran Khan, who resigned his national assembly seat -- along with most of his party members -- ahead of the vote.
"Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has been elected as prime minister," said acting speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq after 174 votes were cast in the 342-seat assembly. Sharif, 70, led an opposition alliance that forced a no-confidence vote on Khan through the national assembly following weeks of political turmoil in the nuclear-armed nation of 220 million people.
Khan loyalist and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi withdrew his candidacy for the position shortly before the vote began and said he was quitting the assembly in protest, along with most Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party members. After being formally sworn in, Sharif's first task will be to form a cabinet drawn from his centrist Pakistan Muslim League-N party, the centre-left Pakistan Peoples Party, and the smaller conservative Jamiat-ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) group.
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