Shehbaz Sharif wins second term as Pakistan's Prime Minister

ISLAMABAD: After the tumultuous election week in Pakistan, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif emerged as the prime minister pick for a second time as he won comfortably receiving 201 votes in the 336-member house. Shehbaz, brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was the prime ministerial candidate of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) alliance.

The 72-year-old Shehbaz first became the Prime Minister after Imran Khan was ousted through a no-confidence vote in April 2022. Shehbaz has the record of being the longest-serving Chief Minister of Punjab province.

It was PTI's independents who won most in the election with 93 seats. PML-N got 75 and PPP stuck with 54 seats. The PTI Independents are currently part of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) coalition in Parliament.

The newly elected members of Parliament (National Assembly) took office on Thursday. The election for the new president will be held on March 9. Bilawal's father and former president Asif Ali Zardari is the nominee of the PML-N-PPP alliance. Zardari is the husband of the late former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. He also served as the President of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013.