Sharif, leader of the centrist Pakistan Muslim League-N is the new prime minister of Pakistan
The former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, had earlier accused the United States of conspiring against him. Following Shehbaz Sharif replacing Khan as the PM.
The lower house of parliament convened Monday afternoon to select Pakistan’s prime minister, following Sunday’s no-confidence vote, which removed former Prime Minister Imran Khan from power.
Sharif was the only contender following the walkout of the more than 100 members of parliament from Khan’s party and was elected with 174 votes.
Shahbaz Sharif was only able to do this after a court in Lahore Pakistan accepted Shehbaz’s application seeking exemption from personal appearance in court in the money laundering proceedings for one day
On Monday the court deferred until April 27 the indictment of the then joint Opposition’s prime ministerial candidate Shehbaz Sharif and his son Hamza Shehbaz in a high-profile money laundering case and also extended their pre-arrest bail till the same day, allowing the PML-N president to become the new prime minister.
A family history of politics and crime.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) special court accepted Shehbaz’s application seeking exemption from personal appearance in court in the money laundering proceedings for one day, and extended the pre-arrest bail of the father and son for April 27 on their request, a court official told PTI after the proceedings.
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.
After the Panama Papers revealed hidden assets belonging to Nawaz Sharif’s family, he resigned as prime minister in 2017. The following year a Pakistan court sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment for corruption. He has claimed that this and other corruption cases against him are politically motivated.
The younger Sharif is also mired in legal 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.
Shehbaz and his sons — Hamza and Suleman — were charged by FIA in November 2020 under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act and Anti-Money Laundering Act. Suleman absconded and is residing in the UK.
If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck… It’s probably a US backed coup.
There are claims Imran Khan was overthrown in a US-backed coup aimed at reversing his independent foreign policy – like his close alliance with China, improved relations with Russia and Iran, and staunch support for Palestine.
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.
Despite efforts 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.
Pakistan became an independent state in 1947; but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change. It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) April 10, 2022
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.
Khan has claimed that his independent foreign policy has annoyed ‘foreign powers’ and they have financed the opposition’s no-trust move against him.
In an address to the nation on Friday, the prime minister reiterated his allegations that a senior US diplomat threatened a regime change in Pakistan.
Khan also tweeted: “Thank you to all Pakistanis for their amazing outpouring of support & emotions to protest against US-backed regime change abetted by local Mir Jafars to bring into power a coterie of pliable crooks all out on bail. Shows Pakistanis at home & abroad have emphatically rejected this”.
The news site, ‘Foreign Policy,’ noted in its latest report on Pakistan that “the future of Islamabad’s fragile relationship with Washington remains foggy after Prime Minister Khan levelled serious allegations against the United States, making it a central part of their political crisis”.
The report, however, argued that Mr Khan’s description of the alleged US involvement sounded more like “a US official complaining about the Pakistani prime minister, not plotting his ousting”.
The Washington-based news site noted that in Pakistan, public mistrust of the United States “runs deep, in great part because there is a history of US meddling in Pakistan’s internal politics”.
The report warned that Khan’s allegations “have hurt US-Pakistan relations, especially after Khan publicly named the US official” involved in the so-called plot.
The report pointed out that their ties were unsettled before this political crisis too “as each country deepens relations with the other’s top rival — Washington with New Delhi and Islamabad with Beijing”.
The report warned that Imran Khan’s allegation of the United States orchestrating regime change “will make it more difficult to rein in the unmoored relationship”.
It seems Biden is taking taken no prisoners, no matter how you look at this, the US is prepared to use its soft and hard power to bring about his so-called NWO.
If you want to know more about US involvement in the US-backed coup in Pakistan that overthrow Imran Khan due to his independent foreign policy, head over to Benjamin Norton Independent journalist, editor of Multipolarista who is joined by Pakistani scholar Junaid S. Ahmad to discuss how Pakistan’s elected Prime Minister Imran Khan was overthrown in a US-backed coup. HERE
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