The opposition parties have officially nominated Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz as their joint candidate for the prime minister’s election scheduled on Monday, ARY News reported. On Saturday, the combined opposition had named Shehbaz as its joint candidate to replace Khan.
Shehbaz, the 70-year-old younger brother of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, has served as chief minister of the country's most populous and politically crucial Punjab province thrice. This is the first time his party PML-N, especially its supremo Nawaz Sharif, agreed on his name for the post of the prime minister. Former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chair Asif Ali had proposed Shehbaz’s name for prime minister's position in a joint opposition's meeting to replace Imran Khan through a no-confidence motion.
Khan, who came to power in 2018 with promises to create a ‘Naya Pakistan’, was dogged by claims of economic mismanagement as his government battled depleting foreign exchange reserves and double-digit inflation. He apparently also lost support of the powerful Army after he refused to endorse the appointment of the ISI spy agency chief last year. Finally he agreed but it soured his ties with the powerful Army, which has ruled the coup-prone country for more than half of its 75 years of existence and has hitherto wielded considerable power in the matters of security and foreign policy. Khan wanted to keep Lt Gen Faiz Hameed as the spy chief but the army high command transferred him by appointing Corps Commander in Peshawar.
-Inputs from agencies
