ISLAMABAD: Despite being viewed as the frontrunner for the country’s top political office until last week's general elections, the founding Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday nominated his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif as his party’s candidate for the prime minister’s post, a PML-N spokesperson confirmed.
The decision comes as a surprise as the elder Sharif, a former three-time prime minister who returned to the country in October 2023 after nearly four years in self-exile, was seen as the favorite candidate for the PM’s office. He was widely believed to be backed by the country’s powerful army, though both deny this.
As the PML-N secured the largest number of seats by a political party after last week’s indecisive polls, 75, Nawaz Sharif called on allied parties last Friday to form a coalition government at the center. Many believed he would once again be nominated as the party’s candidate for the PM’s post.
“Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has nominated Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif for the post of prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” Marriyum Aurangzeb, the PML-N’s information secretary, wrote on X.
Aurangzeb also said that Nawaz Sharif had nominated his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, for the chief minister’s post for Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province.
“Nawaz Sharif, while thanking the people and all political parties and their leaders for providing political support, has expressed his firm belief that the decisions will help Pakistan be free from economic threats and its people will be rid of inflation,” she added.
Shehbaz Sharif, 72, served as Pakistan’s prime minister from April 2022 to August 2023 after he led a movement to oust his predecessor, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, from the PM’s office via a parliamentary vote.
Shehbaz Sharif’s tenure was marked by political and economic instability, with Pakistan almost suffering a sovereign default as an economic crisis enveloped the country, plummeting its foreign exchange reserves and weakening its national currency significantly against the US dollar.
The younger Sharif is credited with launching a series of high-profile projects in Punjab during his multiple stints as the province’s chief minister in the past. The former prime minister enjoys a reputation domestically as an effective administrator. Analysts believe is closer to Pakistan’s powerful military compared to his older brother.
On Tuesday, a coalition of six parties including the PML-N, the PPP, the Muttahida Quami Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) announced joining forces to support a PML-N-led government.
The parties vowed to unite to rid the country of its pressing economic and political issues.
If elected to power, Shehbaz Sharif would have to manage a nuclear-armed country deeply in debt and would have to deal with the daunting task of negotiating a fresh bailout program with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after its current $3 billion standby agreement expires in March.
