ISLAMABAD – Shehbaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), has been declared the 24th Prime Minister of Pakistan. He achieved victory with 201 votes in the National Assembly on Sunday.
The candidate from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Omer Ayub Khan, received 92 votes in the election for the prime minister’s position.
The process to elect the new Prime Minister of Pakistan began in the National Assembly, with two candidates vying for the position: Omar Ayub Khan from the Sunni Ittehad Council and Shehbaz Sharif, backed by a coalition of multiple parties. Despite a slight delay of nearly an hour, the session started at noon.
After submitting their nomination papers, which Speaker Ayaz Sadiq approved, the candidates were ready for the vote. Shehbaz Sharif’s candidacy emerged from a power-sharing agreement between his party, the PML-N, and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). Alongside these two major parties, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid, and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party also supported Sharif.
Currently, independent members and those backed by the PTI form the most substantial group in the National Assembly with 101 seats. The PML-N holds 75 seats, and the PPP has 54. Many PTI-affiliated independents have joined the Sunni Ittehad Council, aiming to secure reserved seats in this strategic move.
Unlike the secret ballot used for electing the speaker or deputy speaker, the election for Prime Minister is conducted openly in the house. The National Assembly’s rules dictate that bells will be rung for five minutes to signal the election’s commencement, allowing all members to enter the hall.
Each candidate will have a separate lobby where members can gather to cast their votes, with a teller assigned to each lobby to record the members’ names and division numbers. Once the voting concludes, the speaker will collect the vote counts from the tellers, ring the bells again, and invite members back into the Assembly chamber. The final results are then announced, confirming the election of the Prime Minister.
