Shehbaz Sharif has been elected as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan. Sharif, President of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), had filed his nominations for the top post yesterday. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi was also in the fray for the prime ministerial post. This comes after Imran Khan was ousted as the prime minister of Pakistan from office through a no-confidence motion after the NA debated on the matter for more than 12 hours on Saturday. 

Sharif, in his speech after winning a parliamentary vote to elect a new prime minister, said that the outgoing government of Imran Khan had mismanaged the economy, and his new government was faced with a huge challenge to bring it back on track.

“The country was on the way to posting the largest budget deficit in its history as well as historical trade and current account deficits."

The new prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has been the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Pakistan since August 2018. Previously, he served as the chief minister of Punjab thrice, making him the longest-serving CM of the province.

Meanwhile, ahead of the election for the new prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan tendered his resignation as a member of the National Assembly. This comes after the leader commented that he will not sit in the assemblies with 'thieves'.

"The man who has 16 billion and 8 billion rupees of corruption cases, whoever selects and elects the Prime Minister can not be a big insult to the country. We are resigning from the National Assembly," Imran Khan was quoted as saying by PTI's official Twitter account.

Confirming the decision, Pakistan's former Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed said that sitting in the assembly would strengthen the Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif and therefore it has been decided to submit their resignation from the National Assembly.

"Imran Khan supported my suggestion during the parliamentary party meeting," he said and added that Khan would visit Peshawar on Wednesday. "Imran Khan will give a call to people every Sunday to come out against the foreign conspiracy," Rasheed said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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