Shehbaz Sharif elected prime minister for the second time

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the 24th prime minister of Pakistan in the National Assembly session on Saturday, hit by the ruckus created by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) members.

Shehbaz Sharif was elected prime minister for the second time after clinching 201 votes.

Omer Ayub Khan, the PTI’s candidate for the premier, could only secure 92 votes.

“Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has been elected prime minister with 201 votes. [While] Omar Ayub obtained 92 votes,” announced Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.

In a speech after winning the election for the premiership, thanked PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif for nominating him for the coveted post, and expressed gratitude to his allies including PPP and the MQM-P and others for supporting him.

Shehbaz Sharif made a couple of promises to the nation including ending terrorism in the country and its roots and also to solve the circular debt crisis in Pakistan. He also added that his government would provide subsidies directly to farmers and a package on solar tube-wells will be soon announced.

Shehbaz Sharif said his government aims to take forward the National Action Plan adding that his government would work on building a system through which swift justice will be provided.

He also announced that women and children behind bars, whose sentences are less than two years, will be freed.

In his victory speech, he went on to say that the public was suffering the burden of sky-high electricity and gas prices.

“Electricity and tax thefts are a matter of life and death for Pakistan […] and I want to say that God willing we will remove this cancer from its roots and make the country stand on its feet.

“It is difficult […] it is a long and thorny journey full of hurdles, but countries that surmounted these challenges became one of the most going nations around the world,” he said.

Shehbaz highlighted that the poor people were bearing the burden of electricity and tax theft. The PM-elect said he would oversee the end of tax theft and bring a technological model that would remove any human error.

“This will decrease inflation, increase employment, the country will grow.”