Sunday saw the election of Shehbaz Sharif to the office of prime minister of Pakistan for a second term. He will lead a fragile coalition that has excluded supporters of imprisoned opposition leader Imran Khan.
Three weeks after widely reported election manipulation, Sharif was elected by 201 votes by recently sworn-in members of Pakistan’s National Assembly.
“Shehbaz Sharif has been declared to have been elected as prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” said newly appointed speaker of the National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.
With 92 votes, Omar Ayub Khan defeated Sharif to become the preferred candidate for Khan’s supporting MPs.
To prevent Khan’s candidates from being elected, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the political organization of the Sharif family, teamed up with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), their longtime enemies, and a few other smaller groups.
Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of deceased former premier Benazir Bhutto, has been promised the presidency of the PPP, a dynastic party headed by Bhutto’s family, in exchange.
In the lead-up to the February 8 elections, former prime minister Khan was imprisoned and disqualified from running for office, and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was the focus of a wave of censorship and arrests.
Despite being obliged to compete as independents, PTI candidates were able to earn the most seats of any party.
However, they were unable to secure the necessary number of votes to form a government, which allowed Sharif to return.
