Pakistan to elect new prime minister on Tuesday

Pakistan's parliament will elect a new prime minister on Tuesday to replace the ousted premier Nawaz Sharif.

The Supreme Court on Friday disqualified 67-year-old Sharif for dishonesty and ruled that corruption cases be filed against him and his children over the Panama Papers scandal, forcing the embattled leader out of office.

President Mamnoon Hussain has summoned National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, on Tuesday at 3:00 PM to elect the new leader of the house.

Separately, the National Assembly Secretariat has announced schedule for election of the new prime minister.

According to a notification, nomination papers can be obtained from the office of the Secretary National Assembly from 3:00 PM on Friday.

The papers will be received till 2:00 PM tomorrow and the Speaker National Assembly will scrutinize the papers at 3:00 PM the same day and announce the list of final candidates.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has nominated Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as prime minister for now but later he would make way for Shehbaz Sharif as Prime Minister.

Pakistan has seen such arrangements in the past too.

During former military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf’s time, politician Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain was appointed as an interim prime minister until Shaukat Aziz, who was nominated by Musharraf, got elected by the ruling Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ).

Opposition parties including Pakistan People Party (PPP) of Asif Ali Zardari and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of Imran Khan are having consultation to bring a joint opposition candidate with the help of smaller parties.

Abbasi is a veteran party worker and hails from the famous hill resort of Murree which is part of Rawalpindi district in Punjab province.

His father Muhammad Khaqan Abbasi was a minister in the 1980s and was killed on April 10, 1988 when his car was hit by a missile after Ojhri Camp arms depot disaster in Rawalpindi.