New Delhi:
The National Assembly of Pakistan on Tuesday elected Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as new Prime Minister of the country. Abbasi got 221 votes in the house of 321. He will take the charge as short-term successor after Nawaz Sharif disqualified by the Supreme Court in connection with Panama Papers case leak.
The other contenders who failed to compete for the top job were Naveed Qamar of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) got 47 votes, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf got 33 while Jamaat-e-Islami’s Sahibzada Tariqullah managed just four votes.
After announcing the results amid sloganeering, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq request Abbasi to take the seat of the prime minister and put his views before the House.
The voting was done with four corners being designated for four candidates where supporters of each candidate recorded their vote.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi wins PM elections with 221 votes: Pak media
— ANI (@ANI_news) August 1, 2017
After the voting and counting process, many of the PML-N National Assembly members entered the House with posters of Sharif. The National Assembly Speaker objected to this and asked them to put away the placards and posters.
Abbasi will be sworn-in in later at a special ceremony at the President’s House, where President Mamnoon Hussain will administer the oath to him.
The Supreme Court on Friday disqualified 67-year-old Prime Minister Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing him to resign.
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The National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, was summoned by President Hussain to elect the new leader.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) nominated Abbasi as interim Prime Minister until Sharif’s brother Shehbaz is elected as a National Assembly member.
Pakistan has seen such arrangements in the past too.
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During former military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf’s time, politician Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was appointed as an interim prime minister until Shaukat Aziz, who was nominated by Musharraf, got elected by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q). (With PTI Inputs)
