Nawaz Sharif’s nominee Shahid Khaqan Abbasi elected Pakistan PM

Pakistan’s National Assembly elected Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) nominee Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the interim Prime Minister of the country on Tuesday.

He won 221 votes in a House of 342. Abbasi has become the country’s 19th Prime Minister, after the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Friday, for being dishonest, and opening the door for corruption cases to be filed against him and his family in connection with the Panama Papers leak. Sharif subsequently resigned.

Abbasi romped to victory as the disjointed opposition in Parliament fielded three candidates, who could only muster 84 votes amongst them. However, Abbasi’s election to office is widely acknowledged as a stop-gap solution, as he is expected to hand over power to Shahbaz Sharif – brother of former PM Nawaz Sharif – when he is elected to the National Assembly within six weeks.

Such interim arrangements are not new to Pakistan. After Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s stint in-charge of the country, Chaudhry Shujaat Husaainfilled in the prime ministerial office until Musharraf-nomiee, Shaukat Aziz was elected by the then ruling party, Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PMLQ).