Shehbaz Sharif, Nawaz Sharif's brother, elected 23rd Pakistan PM

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif was today elected as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif was today elected as the new Prime Minister of Pakistan. Shehbaz Sharif had submitted his nomination to be Pakistan`s next prime minister to the legislature on Sunday, his party said, after incumbent Imran Khan lost a no-confidence vote in parliament after nearly four years in power.

The younger brother of three-times prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Shehbaz, 70, has led a bid by the opposition in parliament to topple former cricket star Khan, and he is widely expected to replace him following a vote on Monday.

For Shehbaz Sharif, it will be a herculean task to put the country back on track to development, stability, and progress.

The added issue for Shehbaz Sharif is that he is not provided with the comfort of time to fix the problems as his ruling tenure is coming in power with an agenda of doing electoral reforms and immediately going into early elections, expected to be announced immediately after the newly elected Prime Minister presents the Budget in June 2022.

It will not be wrong to say that Shehbaz Sharif will be taking over the country`s management at a time when its economic, political and social turmoil may ruin the celebratory crown of throne on his head, as it will not be easily borne.

Another challenge for Shehbaz Sharif will be to meet the expectations of distribution of powers among the coalition members, who have competing interests with and against each other.

The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition of opposition parties came together with a one point common agenda of removing Imran Khan as the country`s Prime Minister. Beyond that, they have a history of rigid differences, making it an even more difficult task for Shehbaz Sharif to balance.

It is believed that the survival of this coalition may be short-lived and may show clear signs of deteriorations after mutual interests of undoing some measures Imran Khan took, are taken care of.

It is this reason why Shehbaz Sharif will not want to be in this kind of a coalition that carries the tendency of deviating from the alliance and weakens his government.

Too far but not so, the retirement of the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) will be at the doorstep. As COAS retirement is due in November 2022, it is believed that Shahbaz Sharif would want to dissolve the Assemblies and announce early elections before that time comes as he would not want to see himself in a difficult political situation on the sensitive matter.