The Japan Times - Pakistan lawmakers start vote for new PM after Khan ousted

EUR -
AED 3.807443
AFN 77.391292
ALL 99.493048
AMD 411.236955
ANG 1.868156
AOA 947.988616
ARS 1092.019801
AUD 1.662113
AWG 1.867209
AZN 1.760047
BAM 1.963896
BBD 2.092868
BDT 126.403548
BGN 1.961925
BHD 0.390749
BIF 3068.137457
BMD 1.036619
BND 1.406338
BOB 7.162736
BRL 5.988439
BSD 1.036493
BTN 90.321974
BWP 14.477102
BYN 3.39215
BYR 20317.723586
BZD 2.082144
CAD 1.488548
CDF 2954.362282
CHF 0.939489
CLF 0.02644
CLP 1014.756271
CNY 7.449451
CNH 7.552227
COP 4311.690466
CRC 524.577799
CUC 1.036619
CUP 27.470392
CVE 110.722531
CZK 25.173186
DJF 184.586315
DKK 7.460762
DOP 64.05593
DZD 140.602761
EGP 52.129782
ERN 15.549278
ETB 132.633331
FJD 2.406925
FKP 0.853746
GBP 0.832034
GEL 2.943898
GGP 0.853746
GHS 15.962268
GIP 0.853746
GMD 75.153968
GNF 8958.933986
GTQ 8.012263
GYD 216.860301
HKD 8.072724
HNL 26.405368
HRK 7.649776
HTG 135.582876
HUF 406.893348
IDR 16899.422085
ILS 3.705942
IMP 0.853746
INR 90.236088
IQD 1357.837098
IRR 43641.64127
ISK 146.795006
JEP 0.853746
JMD 163.263066
JOD 0.73538
JPY 160.449907
KES 133.878976
KGS 90.652268
KHR 4168.304832
KMF 496.385051
KPW 932.95681
KRW 1503.822882
KWD 0.31988
KYD 0.863786
KZT 538.616079
LAK 22547.607008
LBP 92822.254129
LKR 310.496038
LRD 206.276362
LSL 19.453964
LTL 3.060865
LVL 0.62704
LYD 5.11117
MAD 10.446568
MDL 19.471838
MGA 4866.202172
MKD 61.722173
MMK 3366.896615
MNT 3522.429945
MOP 8.314217
MRU 41.378384
MUR 48.721162
MVR 15.963341
MWK 1797.361797
MXN 21.20281
MYR 4.606701
MZN 66.238838
NAD 19.453964
NGN 1546.562253
NIO 38.148004
NOK 11.689803
NPR 144.515658
NZD 1.839101
OMR 0.39905
PAB 1.036503
PEN 3.84131
PGK 4.220481
PHP 60.133239
PKR 289.140285
PLN 4.216932
PYG 8161.805223
QAR 3.778952
RON 4.984185
RSD 117.080852
RUB 103.596064
RWF 1464.078161
SAR 3.887694
SBD 8.785534
SCR 14.849161
SDG 623.007574
SEK 11.395988
SGD 1.402514
SHP 0.853746
SLE 23.740152
SLL 21737.372608
SOS 592.359195
SRD 36.390526
STD 21455.911066
SVC 9.069477
SYP 13478.114376
SZL 19.447738
THB 34.901386
TJS 11.298305
TMT 3.628165
TND 3.327382
TOP 2.427869
TRY 37.247612
TTD 7.030186
TWD 34.054479
TZS 2657.132218
UAH 43.260781
UGX 3814.800448
USD 1.036619
UYU 44.715205
UZS 13459.748672
VES 60.613355
VND 26102.055096
VUV 123.069436
WST 2.903389
XAF 658.691576
XAG 0.032195
XAU 0.000365
XCD 2.801513
XDR 0.794993
XOF 658.682005
XPF 119.331742
YER 257.912192
ZAR 19.376832
ZMK 9330.799205
ZMW 29.15303
ZWL 333.79075
  • RYCEF

    0.1500

    7.5

    +2%

  • RBGPF

    0.2700

    66.27

    +0.41%

  • CMSD

    0.0010

    23.751

    0%

  • CMSC

    -0.0600

    23.29

    -0.26%

  • RIO

    1.0900

    60.94

    +1.79%

  • SCS

    0.1400

    11.21

    +1.25%

  • RELX

    0.1100

    49.96

    +0.22%

  • NGG

    0.1800

    62.19

    +0.29%

  • BCC

    0.9600

    126.1

    +0.76%

  • JRI

    0.1380

    12.598

    +1.1%

  • VOD

    -0.3890

    8.101

    -4.8%

  • GSK

    -0.0650

    34.835

    -0.19%

  • AZN

    -0.3900

    69.47

    -0.56%

  • BCE

    0.3060

    24.336

    +1.26%

  • BTI

    0.4250

    40.165

    +1.06%

  • BP

    0.5950

    31.465

    +1.89%

Pakistan lawmakers start vote for new PM after Khan ousted
Pakistan lawmakers start vote for new PM after Khan ousted

Pakistan lawmakers start vote for new PM after Khan ousted

Shehbaz Sharif was set Monday to become Pakistan's new prime minister, but ousted premier Imran Khan and most of his party's lawmakers resigned their seats in the national assembly immediately before voting started.

Text size:

Khan was dismissed Sunday after losing a no-confidence vote, paving the way for an opposition alliance that faces the same issues which bedevilled the cricket star-turned-politician.

Sharif, leader of the centrist Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) is certain to be chosen after Khan loyalist Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the former foreign minister, withdrew his candidacy and resigned his seat.

"I announced a boycott of the election," Qureshi said.

"We announce we (the party lawmakers) will submit our resignations. We reject becoming a part of this illegitimate process."

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had 155 lawmakers in the 342-seat chamber, although more than a dozen had said they would cross the floor ahead of Sunday's no-confidence vote.

Sharif's first task will be to form a cabinet that will also draw heavily from the centre-left Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), as well as find space for the smaller conservative Jamiat-ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) group.

- Bitter rivals -

The PPP and PML-N are dynastic parties that have dominated Pakistani politics for decades -- usually as bitter rivals -- but their relations are sure to fray in the lead-up to the next election, which must be held by October 2023.

They need to tackle soaring inflation, a feeble rupee and crippling debt, while militancy is also on the rise -- with Pakistan's Taliban emboldened by the return to power last year of the hardline Islamist group in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Shehbaz Sharif is the younger brother of disgraced three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and Pakistan media are already speculating the latter may soon return from exile in Britain.

The elder Sharif was dismissed in 2017 and later jailed for 10 years by an accountability court on graft charges after revelations from the Panama Papers, but was released to seek medical treatment abroad.

The younger Sharif is also mired in graft proceedings. In 2019, the National Accountability Bureau seized nearly two dozen properties belonging to him and his son Hamza, accusing them of money laundering.

He was arrested and detained in September 2020, but released six months later on bail for a trial which is still pending.

A seasoned politician in his own right, Sharif, 70, jointly inherited the family's steel business as a young man and was first elected to provincial office in 1988.

He is known as a tough administrator, feared for his frequent "surprise visits" to government institutions as well as a penchant for quoting revolutionary poetry.

- Defeat not taken well -

No prime minister has ever served a full term in Pakistan, but Khan is the first to lose office via a vote of no-confidence -- a defeat he has not taken well.

He tried everything to stay in power after losing his majority in parliament -- including dissolving the assembly and calling a fresh election.

But the Supreme Court deemed all his actions illegal and ordered them to reconvene and vote.

Khan insists he has been the victim of a "regime change" conspiracy involving Washington, and has vowed to take his fight to the streets in the hope of forcing an early election.

Political analyst Talat Masood said Khan appears to want to "create problems" for the next government.

"From what he has been saying, he seems to want to... pursue a kind of a policy of trying to sort of rebel rather (than) make things better for the country and society," Masood, a former general, told AFP.

Publicly, the military appears to be keeping out of the current fray, but there have been four coups since independence in 1947, and Pakistan has spent more than three decades under army rule.

Y.Kimura--JT