Shehbaz Sharif set for 2nd term as Pakistan PM. 10 things to know about PML-N leader

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party Shehbaz Sharif speaks during a press conference in Lahore on February 13, 2024.

Shehbaz Sharif is set for a second term as Pakistan’s prime minister after his elder brother and three-time PM Nawaz Sharif stepped aside from the race for the top job.

The recently concluded parliamentary elections in Pakistan gave a fractured mandate, with the independent candidates backed by former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party forming the largest single bloc. However, despite independents winning 101 national assembly seats, a government can only be formed by a recognised party, or coalition of parties, so they would have to join another group to become an effective bloc.

Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), on the other hand, emerged as the single-largest party with 80 seats in the 264-seat parliament while Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) came distant second.

Earlier, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari announced that his party will support the PML-N-led government and won’t join the cabinet. Bilawal, the son of Zardari and assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, said he would like to see his father become president again.

“And I am not saying this because he is my father. I am saying this because the country is in a huge crisis at the moment and if anyone has the capacity to douse this fire, it is Asif Ali Zardari,” he said.

Bilawal’s announcement to support PML-N and Nawaz Sharif’s decision to drop out of PM race have paved way for younger Sharif to take up the top job.

Here’s all you need to know about Shehbaz Sharif

1. Born on September 23, 1951, in Lahore, Punjab, Shehbaz Sharif hails from the illustrious Sharif family, which has been a dominant force in Pakistani politics for decades.
2. Shehbaz Sharif received his education from Government College, Lahore, and later pursued a degree in law from the University of Punjab.
3. He entered politics in the 1980s and quickly rose through the ranks of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), the political party founded by his brother, Nawaz Sharif, and their father, Mian Muhammad Sharif.
4. Shehbaz Sharif served as the chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, for multiple terms. Before his stint as prime minister, Sharif was known more as a good administrator than a politician.
5. His cabinet members and bureaucrats who have worked closely with him call him a workaholic.
6. He played a key role in keeping together a coalition of disparate parties for 16 months after parliament voted rival Imran Khan out of office in 2022.
7. His biggest achievement in his short tenure was clinching a bailout from the IMF with Pakistan on the brink of a debt default.
8. However, under his government, inflation touched a high of 38% with a record depreciation of the rupee currency.
9. Shehbaz Sharif’s potential second term begins amid economic turbulence, with inflation soaring to unprecedented levels and the national currency experiencing significant depreciation.
10. Married twice, Shehbaz Sharif has two sons and two daughters from his first marriage but none from the second.

(With agency inputs)

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