Sharif set to become next Pakistan PM after parliament ousts Khan

Islamabad

IMRAN Khan was dismissed on Sunday (Apr 10) as Pakistan's prime minister after losing a no-confidence vote, paving the way for an unlikely opposition alliance that faces the same issues that bedevilled the cricket star-turned-politician.

A new premier will be chosen on Monday, with centrist Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif already anointed to lead the nuclear-armed nation of 220 million people. His 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 Jamiatul Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) group.

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

Shehbaz Sharif is the brother of disgraced 3-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, while PPP leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari is the son of former president Asif Ali Zardari and assassinated ex-premier Benazir Bhutto.

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.

There had been high hopes for Khan when he was elected in 2018 on a promise of sweeping away decades of entrenched corruption and cronyism, but he struggled to maintain support with soaring inflation, a feeble rupee and crippling debt.

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.

Khan had vowed to fight "until the last ball", and he certainly took his exit to the wire on Sunday.

He tried everything to stay in power - including dissolving parliament and calling a fresh election - but the Supreme Court deemed all his actions illegal last week, and ordered the assembly to reconvene and vote.

Still, there was drama right until the midnight deadline ordered by the court, with the speaker of the assembly - a Khan loyalist - resigning at the last minute. The session restarted after midnight with a replacement, and the vote was finally held.

Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) lawmakers stormed out, but the no-confidence motion passed with 174 votes in the 342-seat assembly.

New Pakistan governments frequently have a reckoning with those they replace, but Sharif said there would be no vendettas. "We will put a balm on the wounds of this nation," he said immediately after the result was announced.

Khan insists he has been the victim of a "regime change" conspiracy involving Washington, and he is certain to tap into anti-US sentiment from the opposition benches.

Publicly, the military appears to be keeping out of the current fray, but there have been 4 coups since independence in 1947, and Pakistan has spent more than 3 decades under army rule. AFP