Shahbaz Sharif elected Pakistan's prime minister for second term
- Last updated: March 3, 2024 | 13:07
Tariq Butt, Correspondent/ AP
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif was elected the 24th prime minister of Pakistan after clinching 201 votes in the National Assembly (NA), lower house of parliament, on Sunday. Omer Ayub, the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate for the premier, secured 92 votes.
Following the announcement of his victory by Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Shahbaz Sharif hugged elder brother Nawaz Sharif, who was sitting nearby in the Lower House of Parliament.
The new premier said that perpetrators (PTI leaders and activists) of the May 9 riots will not be forgiven, vowing action against all those who were involved in the riots. He also promised to end terrorism in the country and address its root causes. He said the aim of his government is to take the National Action Plan (NAP) forward.
Referring to the economy, Shahbaz Sharif said that his government would bring investment in to Pakistan and create economic conditions to spur growth, emphasising that "one window" export zones will be established in all provinces.
He also promised subsidies for farmers and said a package on solar tube-wells will be announced soon. He said that the "seed mafia" would be eliminated soon and Pakistan would import seeds from the best countries in the world to provide them to farmers.
Shahbaz Sharif added that the federal government would work with all provinces in the agriculture sector. He said efficient public transport and state-of-the-art hospitals and medical facilities will be provided to the people.
Referring to dispensation of justice, he said the government would work on introducing a system through which the people will get swift justice and those women and children who are currently incarcerated and whose sentences are less than two years, will be freed.
‘SELF-SUFFICENT’
He said Pakistan is facing an alarming debt crisis, and vowed to make Pakistan "self-sufficient." "But if we decide to do a deep surgery and bring changes in the system, basic reforms, and I do not doubt that Nawaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari and others will agree that we can either get rid of a life of debt or we move forward in shame. We will rise and we will make Pakistan self-sufficient.”
Shahbaz said that the people of Pakistan were suffering the burden of sky-high electricity and gas prices and said "electricity and tax thefts are a matter of life and death for Pakistan."
"It is difficult and a long and thorny journey full of hurdles, but countries that surmounted these challenges became one of the most prosperous nations around the world." He added that he would bring a technological model to reduce tax theft, which he maintained, would "reduce inflation, increase employment, and the country will grow." The premier thanked the PML-N's allies and his brother for putting their trust in him to lead the country.
The Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) that has all the PTI lawmakers in its fold, chanted slogans of 'chor' [thief] as Shahbaz Sharif spoke.
"When my leader was elected the prime minister thrice, the development that followed in the country is an example of its own. And it is not wrong to say that Nawaz Sharif is the one who built Pakistan," Shahbaz Sharif said.
Paying tribute to his allies and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), he said the nation will always remember the sacrifices of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
Hitting at the PTI, the prime minister said his elder brother has never even thought of harming the country and regretted how the PML-N was treated during the tenure of the PTI government. "They put the entire opposition behind bars, they didn’t care about women or children and used language that cannot be said out loud."
He vowed to steer Pakistan out of its current crisis. "If we come together and decide to change the fate of Pakistan. God willing, we will defeat these challenges and take Pakistan to its rightful position.”
ALLEGATIONS OF RIGGING
After losing to Shahbaz, Ayub addressed the parliament, commending "my leader” Imran Khan for his "bravery” while facing the cases against him. He denounced the arrest of "thousands of Imran Khan's supporters” last year after they took to the streets following his ouster.
Ayub repeated the allegations of vote rigging and demanded a probe into last month’s poll. He said PTI votes were tampered with and "votes were stolen” to stop Imran Khan's party from forming a government.
He said Shahbaz Sharif can rule the country but "he cannot win hearts and minds because he came to power through a rigged vote.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping was among the first to congratulate Shahbaz Sharif on his election as Pakistan’s prime minister, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday