Shehbaz Sharif, brother of exiled Pakistani leader and former president Nawaz Sharif, was officially elected by the alliance of opposition parties on Sunday as a candidate to take the place of ousted Prime Minister Imran Khan, who lost a convulsive motion of censure last night.
The National Assembly (NA, Lower House) will elect tomorrow Monday the new prime minister, a vote that Shehbaz Sharif, president of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), has all the ballots to win with the support of opposition parties.
Sharif will then form a coalition government with the opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-P, which was crucial in abandoning its alliance with ruler Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), pushing for the triumph of the motion of censure against Khan.
If his election is confirmed, Sharif will hold power for barely a year, until mid-2023, when new general elections are scheduled.
The opposition alliance has been described by the PTI leaders as an “unholy” union that, according to them, will not even last until the next elections.
YOUR TURN
Despite decades of outstanding political career, Shehbaz Sharif had always remained in the shadow of his brother, the three-time prime minister of Pakistan and top head of PML-N Nawaz Sharif.
Nawaz, who dominated the Pakistani political scene alone, never gave his brother room in his governments, and Shehbaz had to settle as head of government in the province of Punjab.
However, the political disqualification of Nawaz, convicted of corruption in 2018, and his subsequent exile, left Shehbaz at the top of the Muslim League line of succession and thereby took the baton of the opposition that puts him very close to ruling the country.
Pakistani media have repeatedly reported in the past of alleged power friction between Shehbaz and Nawaz, who sees his daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif as his political heir, disputes that the Sharif family has always denied.
THE ORIGIN
Born in 1951 to a family of industrialists in the capital of Punjab, Lahore, his career in public service began as president of the Punjab Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1985, where he later joined active politics following his older brother.
He was elected three times as a member of the Punjab Provincial Assembly, and in 1997 he was elected head of the provincial government, a position he abandoned following the 1999 coup d'état of General Pervez Musharraf, which forced him and his brother Nawaz to flee the country.
Both returned to Pakistan in 2007, and in 2013, following a new victory for the PML-N, Shehbaz was re-elected as the head of government of Punjab until 2018.
The opposition leader has the distinction of being the longest-serving head of government in the province of Punjab, having held office three times.
In the 2018 elections, the same year Khan was elected, Shehbaz won a seat in the National Assembly and was elected as leader of the opposition.
MONEY LAUNDERING
In 2019, the National Accountability Office (NAB) froze 23 properties belonging to Shehbaz Sharif and his son, Hamza Sharif, on charges of money laundering.
The opposition leader was arrested for the same case in September 2020 and seven months later the Lahore High Court granted him a bail measure.
Despite this, Shehbaz is distinguished by being a firm and efficient administrator.
In 2018, his brother Nawaz was sentenced to ten years in prison on charges of corruption. He was later released on bail and went abroad for medical treatment.
(with information from EFE)
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