shehbaz-sharif-to-take-oath-for-the-second-time-as-pak-s-prime-minister-on-monday

Shehbaz Sharif will take the oath as Prime Minister of Pakistan on Monday, taking over the reins of the country for a second time since 2022, amidst staggering economic and security challenges faced by the country.

 

President Arif Alvi will administer the oath to Shehbaz Sharif in a ceremony held at the President’s residence in the afternoon.

 

The oath-taking ceremony comes days after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party agreed on a power-sharing deal to form a coalition government.

 

Shehbaz, 72, earlier served as prime minister of a coalition government from April 2022 to August 2023 before Parliament was dissolved to hold general elections last month.

 

Pakistan Army Chief Gen Asim Munir, caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar, chief ministers and governors of all four provinces are expected to attend the oath-taking ceremony.

 

On Sunday, Shehbaz comfortably won a majority in the newly-elected Parliament amidst sloganeering by the Opposition.

 

Shehbaz, the consensus candidate of the PML-N and the PPP, received 201 votes in the 336-member Parliament. His challenger Omar Ayub Khan of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) secured 92 votes.

 

The security situation of the country has also deteriorated in recent months, with an increase in terror attacks by Pakistan Taliban and other terror groups.

During Shehbaz’s two successive tenures as chief minister of Punjab (2008-2013 and 2013-2018), a network of underpasses, overhead bridges and mass transit systems was introduced in the most populous Punjab province and was completed in record time.

 

Born in September 1951 in a Punjabi-speaking Kashmiri family in Lahore, Shehbaz did his graduation from the Government College University, Lahore.

 

His family emigrated from Anantnag in Kashmir for business and settled in the village of Jati Umra in Amritsar district, Punjab at the beginning of the 20th century before moving to Pakistan.