PLM-N President Shehbaz Sharif was elected the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan by the National Assembly with the majority of 174 as the members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf boycotted the election and resigned from the lower house. The PTI lawmakers walked out of the assembly with Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the party’s candidate for prime minister, and announced that his fellow party members would resign from the National Assembly.
As Qureshi and his cohorts walked out of the assembly, Shehbaz Sharif remained the sole contender for the premiership and was consequently elected as the country’s chief executive. PML-N’s Ayaz Sadiq presided over today’s session after Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri said that his “conscience” did not allow him to conduct the session. Soon after the election, the new premier of Pakistan announced several policy measures, including a 10pc increase in pensions starting from April, raising the minimum wage to pkr 25,000, promising to make the country a “paradise for investments” and et al.
Monday’s developments come two days after the unceremonious end to the rule of Imran Khan, the Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf. In today’s session, Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri began by explaining the rationale behind his decision to dismiss the vote of no-confidence against the erstwhile prime minister, Imran Khan.
“The ruling was declared unconstitutional by the court … and we all are obliged to respect the court. But I want to tell you the reason behind my ruling,” he said, adding that he had taken the decision “as a responsible Pakistani and deputy speaker of the NA.”
He referred to a communique that reportedly contained the evidence of a foreign conspiracy against the PTI-led government. He said that the cable was discussed in a meeting of the National Security Committee, the federal cabinet and the parliamentary committee for security.
“And it was proven that the no-confidence motion [was linked] to a foreign conspiracy,” he said.