Key notes:
- Shahid Khaqan Abbasi becomes new Leader of the National Assembly with 221 votes
- Syed Naveed Qamar takes 47 votes
- Sheikh Rasheed takes 33 votes
- Sahibzada Tariqullah takes 4 votes
- ANP didn’t participate in voting
- Shahid Khaqan Abbasi sworn in
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has become Pakistan’s 18th Prime Minister on Tuesday after the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) and its political allies pushed their support for the former Federal Minister for Petroleum and natural Resources.
The 58-year-old Shahid Khaqan Abbasi bagged 221 votes when election for the prime minister took place in 342-member Lower House of the Parliament.
Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) Syed Qamar Naveed secured 47 votes, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed took 33 votes while Jamaat-e-Islami’s (JI) Sahibzada Tariqullah grabbed 4 votes.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi had the support of PML-N, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F), Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM Pakistan), Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F), Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Zia (PML-Z), National Party (NP).
“I am thankful to all who have participated in this legal democratic procedure,” Shahid Khaqaan Abbasi said on the floor of the House after being elected as the Country’s next prime minister.
Two lawmakers of Awami National Party (ANP) Ghulam Ahmed Bilour and Ameer Haider Khan Hoti didn’t participate in the voting though they were present in the House.
The six-time member of National Assembly Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will remain the prime minister of Pakistan for 45 days till Shahbaz Sharif grabs the position as Nawaz Sharif’s successor for remaining tenure by winning the by-election in NA-120 scheduled next month.
Later Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was sworn as the interim prime minister in an oath taking ceremony. President Mamnoon Hussain administered oath to the newly elected prime minister.
Born in 1958, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi received his early education from Lawrence College in Murree. In 1978, he went abroad and attained his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.
In 1985, he went to the George Washington University to secure a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering. Later, he pursued his profession as the Electrical Engineer, and worked in the United States and Saudi Arabia.
Following the death of his father in 1988, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi joined politics and became the member of National Assembly for the first time after winning the general election from Murree’s Constituency NA-50 in 1988. He joined the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI), on which platform, he won the 1990 general elections.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was re-elected as the lawmaker in the Lower House on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ticket from NA-50 as a result of 1993 general elections. He consecutively bagged the national assembly membership for the fourth time in 1997 on PML-N ticket.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi also remained the Chairman of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) from 1997 to 1999 but as a result of military coup in 1999, he was arrested and imprisoned for two years.
In 2002 general elections, Abbasi lost to PPP’s Ghulam Murtaza Satti and faced his first ever defeat after joining the politics back in 1988.
But he returned to the National Assembly after clinching two back to back victories in 2008 and 2013 general elections on PML-N platform.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was appointed in 2013 as the Federal Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources, the Office which he continued to occupy till July 28, 2017 when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court under article 62 (F) of the Constitution, and eventually the Cabinet was dissolved along with it.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi is also the owner of private airline Air Blue which he founded in 2003.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi elected Prime Minister of Pakistan pic.twitter.com/XjyfPT05d2
— PTV News (@PTVNewsOfficial) August 1, 2017
Though Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was the Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources but the Country is yet to pull itself out of energy crises.
The fate of Country’s three major energy-related agreements including Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline (TAPI), Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline and North-South gas pipeline (signed with Russia in 2015) is tentative, but though it’s primarily because of the vested interests of some major powers.
