Pakistan’s parliament elected ruling party loyalist Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as prime minister yesterday, after Nawaz Sharif’s ouster by the Supreme Court following a corruption probe.
Abbasi is seen as a placeholder for Sharif’s designated successor, his younger brother Shahbaz, who must first be elected to the 342-member National Assembly before taking the top office.
Nominated by Sharif’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Abbasi secured 221 votes, Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq announced on live television.
He was sworn in at the presidency later yesterday by President Mamnoon Hussain.
Despite his election minutes before, the new premier used his maiden speech in parliament to declare Nawaz Sharif “the prime minister of the people of Pakistan”.
“Inshallah one day the real prime minister of this country will come back and sit on this chair,” he said.
Sharif supporters in the assembly chanted slogans and waved placards bearing larger-than-life images of the deposed premier.
Absent from the assembly was opposition leader Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician who spearheaded the push against Sharif.
Abbasi, a long-time ally of Sharif, easily won the majority required to become prime minister in the PML-N dominated parliament, putting into motion a process that is expected to ultimately see a Sharif once again as Pakistan’s premier.
“Whether it’s 45 days or 45 hours, I am the prime minister of Pakistan and I am here to work, not keep the seat warm,” Abbasi continued, referring to the time limit on a by-election for Sharif’s old seat, which Shahbaz Sharif is expected to fill.
Listing PML-N trademark issues such as infrastructure projects, he also vowed to crack down on tax evaders and private ownership of automatic weapons.
Nawaz Sharif was the 15th prime minister in Pakistan’s 70-year history — roughly half of which has been spent under military rule — to be ousted before completing a full term.
The top court sacked him Friday after an investigation into corruption allegations against him and his family, bringing his historic third term in power to an unceremonious end and briefly plunging the nuclear-armed nation into political uncertainty.
Observers have said it is unclear whether the court’s ruling will allow the ousted Sharif to run for office again in the future.
Abbasi is the former federal minister for petroleum and natural resources, and a businessman who launched the country’s most successful private airline, Air Blue.
Educated in the United States at George Washington University, he worked overseas as an electrical engineer before joining politics and being elected to the National Assembly six times.
He was arrested after the 1999 military coup led by General Pervez Musharraf, which ended Nawaz Sharif’s second term as PM, and was imprisoned for two years before being released.
Prime Minister-in-waiting Shahbaz Sharif went into exile in Saudi Arabia along with Nawaz after the coup.
Shahbaz returned to Pakistan in 2007 and was elected chief minister in the family’s power base of Punjab in 2008, becoming the longest serving top official in the province.
A tough administrator with a reputation for passionate outbursts, he is known for using revolutionary poetry in speeches and public meetings and considered by some to be a workaholic.
His scandalous relationships fuelled headlines in the past, but his marriage to author Tehmina Durrani, his fifth wife, in 2003 has since dampened the media frenzy.
Shahbaz has been so far largely unscathed by claims about the lavish lifestyles and luxury London property portfolio of the Sharif dynasty, which have played out for months in the raucous news media.
It was an investigation into the claims, which first erupted with the Panama Papers leak last year, that eventually saw the Supreme Court oust Nawaz Sharif.
He and his family have denied the accusations.
Abbasi is expected to act as a placeholder for the Sharif dynasty after three-time premier Nawaz Sharif was ousted by the Supreme Court.
He is expected to serve as prime minister until Sharif’s younger brother Shahbaz, a provincial minister, can be elected to the national assembly and take over the leadership.
Abbasi was appointed oil minister when former premier Sharif won his third term in 2013.
Abbasi was born in the southern port city of Karachi but is a member of the National Assembly for Murree — a hill station in northern Punjab that is a favourite holiday destination for Sharif.
Abbasi worked in the US and Saudi Arabia as an electrical engineer before joining politics after his father, a minister in General Zia ul-Haq’s government, was killed when an ammunition depot belonging to Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Service Intelligence Agency (ISI) exploded in Rawalpindi in 1988.
Abbasi has been elected six times as a member of the National Assembly since then, and has previously served as minister for commerce and defence production.
He was the chairman of national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) from 1997 to 1999, until General Pervez Musharraf seized power, overthrowing Sharif’s second government.
Abbasi was arrested after the coup and imprisoned for two years before being released.
In 2003, he setup an airline, Air Blue, the country’s most successful private airline and challenger to PIA.
Leader of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party Maulana Fazlur Rehman arrives at parliament to cast his vote.
