Sharif family may regain power in Pakistan

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari today not only foresaw Imran Khan losing the trust vote in the National Assembly (Pakistani parliament) but also announced that Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif will soon become the prime minister of that country. Addressing a press conference ahead of the no-confidence motion on 3 April, Bhutto today thanked Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan [MQM(P)] for joining hands with the opposition and deciding to support them to oust Imran Khan as Prime Minister.

Khan today lost the majority in the Pakistani parliament after the MQM(P) cross-voted.

While Khan needed 172 votes in the lower house of 342 to foil the opposition’s attempt to oust him from power, the chief of Jamiat Ulema-i-Islama Fazl [JUI(F)], Maulana Fazlur Rehman, said that the opposition had the support of 175 lawmakers and the prime minister should resign.

It is now certain that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz [PML(N)] president and leader of the opposition Shehbaz Sharif will be the next prime minister of Pakistan after the 69-year-old Khan steps down.

10 things to know about Shehbaz Sharif

1. Shehbaz Sharif was born on 23 September 1951 to a Punjabi-speaking Kashmiri family of the Mian clan in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan. Shehbaz’s father, Muhammad Sharif, was an industrialist whose family emigrated from Anantnag in Kashmir for business, and eventually settled in the village of Jati Umra in Amritsar. After the partition, his parents migrated from Amritsar to Lahore.
   2.He is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, the three-time elected prime minister of Pakistan.
2. He served as the chief minister of Pakistan Punjab three times (1997, 2008 and 2013), making him the longest-serving chief minister of Pakistani Punjab.
3. After a military coup deposed the government in 1999, Shehbaz along with his family, spent years in self-exile in Saudi Arabia, returning to Pakistan in 2007.
4. In March 2018, he was elected as the PML(N) chief after his brother Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from holding office. He was nominated as the leader of the opposition after the 2018 election.
5. In December 2019, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) froze 23 properties belonging to Shehbaz and his son, Hamza Sharif, accusing them of money laundering.
6. On 28 September 2020, the NAB arrested Shehbaz at Lahore High Court and indicted him on charges of money laundering. He was incarcerated pending trial. On 14 April 2021, the high court released him on bail in a money laundering reference.
7. He received a bachelor of arts degree from the Government College University, Lahore.
8. After graduation, he joined his family-owned Ittefaq Group and got elected president of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry in 1985.
9. Shehbaz Sharif jointly owns Ittefaq Group, a multimillion-dollar steel conglomerate.