National Assembly to elect new Pakistan PM today

New Delhi, April 10

Pakistan is set to replace Imran Khan as Prime Minister on Monday after he lost a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly late Saturday night. The frontrunner is Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) president Shehbaz Sharif, whose elder brother Nawaz has thrice been Prime Minister but is currently disqualified from contesting. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has nominated former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi as its nominee for the post.

The voting in the National Assembly will take place against the backdrop of Imran Khan calling his supporters to take to the streets in protest against an “imported government”. The process of electing a new leader began on Sunday after Khan was removed from office througha no-confidence vote, becoming the first Pakistan PM to lose the trust of the House.

The joint Opposition consists of unlikely allies such as the socialist Pakistan Peoples Party , ethnic parties such as Muttahida Qaumi Movement (Pakistan) and Balochistan Awami Party, the right-leaning PML (Nawaz) and the completely religious Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam of Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Former Pakistan President and PPP co-chair Asif Ali Zaradri had proposed Shehbaz’s name at a meeting of the Opposition