On Saturday, the Pakistani parliament voted to withdraw confidence from Prime Minister Imran Khan, after two attempts in which he failed to achieve this goal.
Also Saturday, the speaker of the lower house of the Pakistani parliament announced his resignation, against the backdrop of an exacerbation of the crisis over a vote in Parliament to oust Khan.
Who is Shahbaz Sharif?
Shahbaz Sharif, is the leader of the Muslim League, who led the overthrow of Khan. He is the brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and has been leading the opposition in the Pakistani parliament since August 2018.
Sharif served 3 times as the prime minister of Punjab, the richest state of Pakistan, and his career included years of exile he spent in Saudi Arabia after a military coup toppled his brother’s government in 1999, and he also faced charges of financial corruption..
Sharif, 72, was born into a wealthy family, but, like his brother Nawaz, he made his way into the world of politics instead of running the family business, as he graduated from the Government College in Lahore, and his career in politics spans more than 4 decades..
He began his career in public service, as Chairman of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 1985, then joined the political sphere in the footsteps of his older brother Nawaz Sharif, where he was first elected to the Punjab Assembly in 1988.
Sharif was elected a member of the Pakistani National Assembly during the period 1990-1993, then a member of the Punjab Assembly in 1993 when he served as the leader of the opposition until 1996.
He became a member of the Punjab Assembly for the third time in 1997, and was also elected as the chief minister of the province.
After returning from exile in 2008, he was elected a member of the Punjab Assembly for the fourth term and also served as the Chief Minister of Punjab for the second time until March 2013, pouring resources into Punjab’s new roads and metro systems..
In the general elections during 2013, the PML-N party came to power in Punjab, after which Shahbaz Sharif was elected as the Prime Minister of Punjab for the third time..
Sharif is distinguished by being the longest-serving Chief Minister of Punjab, having held this position 3 times.
truce with the army
Although Shahbaz Sharif has previously criticized the military, especially after the overthrow of the government of his brother Nawaz, and their imprisonment and exile, following the military coup in 1999, he has taken a more conciliatory tone in recent years..
In the run-up to the 2018 elections, Shahbaz said the country needed to “move forward” and bridge differences with the military, offering to work with the generals if he was elected prime minister..
When former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was dismissed from office again in 2017, over accusations of corruption, Sharif was one of the candidates to succeed him, but he lost the 2018 elections to Imran Khan, and since then, Shahbaz has served as the opposition leader and head of the Pakistan Muslim League.
Similar to what happened with many members of the Sharif family, accusations of nepotism, corruption and money laundering have targeted Shahbaz and his son Hamza..
In December 2019, the National Audit Bureau of Pakistan froze 23 properties belonging to them, and they were charged with money laundering..
In September 2020, Shahbaz Sharif was arrested on charges of laundering more than 7,328 million rupees (about $40 million) in a scheme involving close associates and family members. He was later released on bail.
In April 2021, the Lahore High Court released him on bail.
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