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.
اضافة اعلان
Khan was
dismissed Sunday after losing a no-confidence vote, paving the way for an
unlikely alliance that faces the same issues which bedeviled the cricket
star-turned-politician — a weak economy, rising militancy, and soured relations
with the West.
Sharif
immediately announced a raft of populist measures, including a new minimum wage
of 25,000 rupees (around $135), pay raises for civil servants, and development
projects in rural areas.
He also said he
wanted better relations with neighbor India, but a solution needed to be found
for Kashmir — the contested Himalayan territory at the heart of decades of
their conflict.
Sharif,
leader of the centrist Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), was the only candidate for
premier after Khan loyalist Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the former foreign minister,
withdrew his candidacy and resigned his seat.
“It’s a victory
of righteousness, and evil has been defeated,” he said in his maiden speech as
premier, suggesting no end to what has been a bitter political battle.
His first task
will be to form a cabinet that will also draw heavily from the center-left
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), as well as find space for the smaller
conservative Jamiat-ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) group.
Bitter rivals
The PPP and PML-N are dynastic parties that have dominated Pakistani politics
for decades — usually as bitter rivals — but their relations are sure to fray
in the lead-up to the next election, which must be held by October 2023.
“History knows
there is no ideological convergence among them,” Qureshi said before storming
out.
They need to
tackle soaring inflation, a feeble rupee, and crippling debt, while militancy
is also on the rise — with Pakistan’s Taliban emboldened by the return to power
last year of the hardline Islamist group in neighboring Afghanistan.
“The situation is
very bad, but I am sure that we will change it with the blessing of Allah and
with hard work,” said Sharif.
The new premier
may also rethink Pakistan’s global alignment, which drifted away from
Washington under Khan and closer to
Russia and China — a vital economic
partner.
“On the foreign
policy front we have to face a lot of debacles. Our strategic partners left
us,” he said.
Pakistan’s stock
exchange gained over three percent Monday on the hope of more stability, while
the rupee also strengthened.
Sharif is the
younger brother of disgraced three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and
Pakistan media are already speculating the latter may soon return from exile in
Britain.
The elder Sharif
was dismissed in 2017 and later jailed for 10 years by an accountability court
on graft charges after revelations from the Panama Papers, but was released to
seek medical treatment abroad.
The younger
Sharif is also mired in graft proceedings. In 2019, the National Accountability
Bureau seized nearly two dozen properties belonging to him and his son Hamza,
accusing them of money laundering.
He was arrested
and detained in September 2020, but released six months later on bail for a
trial which is still pending.
Conspiracy theory
Khan tried everything to stay in power after losing his majority in
parliament — including dissolving the assembly and calling a fresh election.
But the Supreme
Court deemed all his actions illegal and ordered them to reconvene and vote.
Khan insists he
has been the victim of a “regime change” conspiracy involving Washington and
his opponents, and has vowed to take his fight to the streets in the hope of
forcing an early election.
Sharif promised
an investigation into Khan’s allegations.
“If an iota of
evidence is provided against us, I will immediately resign,” he told
parliament.
The mass PTI
resignations signal that Khan intends to make good a threat to disrupt the new
administration and take his fight to the streets, and he called again for mass
protests across the country.
“Whether his agitation
ability has grown or shrunk in last few weeks remains to be seen,” said analyst
Mosharaf Zaidi.
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