Pakistan parliament set to elect new PM after Imran Khan removed
Parliament set to meet to elect a new PM, with opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif the favourite to win after a week-long constitutional crisis.
- Pakistan’s parliament is set to meet to elect a new prime minister after Imran Khan became the first leader in the country’s history to lose a no-confidence vote.
- Opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif is the favourite to win after a week-long constitutional crisis.
- Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has nominated former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as its candidate.
- If Qureshi loses, PTI says its members of parliament will resign en masse, potentially creating the need for urgent by-elections for their seats.
Here are the latest updates:
Who is Shehbaz Sharif?
Shehbaz Sharif, leader of the centrist Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) and former chief minister of Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province, seems likely to be chosen ahead of Khan loyalist Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the former foreign minister.
Sharif, 70, is the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was barred by the Supreme Court in 2017 from holding public office and subsequently went abroad for medical treatment after serving just a few months of a 10-year jail sentence for corruption charges.
Read more here.
Parliament to meet to elect new PM
Parliament’s lower house will convene for a session to decide the new prime minister at approximately 2pm (09:00 GMT).
No elected prime minister has completed a full term in the nuclear-armed nation since it won independence from colonial Britain in 1947.
Photos: Anger on streets as Khan dismissed
Tens of thousands of supporters of deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan have marched in cities across the country, saying they want him back in power.
Khan, 69, was dismissed in the early hours of Sunday after losing a no-confidence vote, paving the way for him to be replaced by a politician from the opposition alliance.
See photos here.
