Shehbaz Sharif takes oath as Pakistan’s Prime Minister for a second time

Islamabad: Shehbaz Sharif on Monday took the oath as Prime Minister of Pakistan, assuming the cash-strapped country’s reins for a second time, nearly a month after an inconclusive election marred by allegations of vote rigging.

In the February 8 elections, Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party came second. Independent candidates backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won the most seats but failed to get a majority in Parliament.

On Sunday, Shehbaz, 72, comfortably won the election for premiership in the newly-elected Parliament. Shehbaz, the consensus candidate of the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), received 201 votes in the 336-member Parliament. His challenger Omar Ayub Khan of Khan’s PTI secured only 92 votes.

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