PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif was elected as the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan after 174 lawmakers voted in his favour as Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MNAs boycotted the election, The Dawn reports.
Earlier, PTI MNAs had walked out of the halls, with Shah Mahmood Qureshi — who was the party's candidate for the top slot — announcing that they would be resigning en masse from the NA.
PML-N's Ayaz Sadiq presided over the session after Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri his conscience did not allow him to conduct the session.
The development comes two days after an unceremonious end to Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan's tenure as the country's chief executive through a no-confidence vote.
After taking the chair of the speaker, Sadiq read out the rules and procedure for the election of the prime minister and asked for the bells to rung for five minutes so that all lawmakers could come inside the halls before the voting began.
He said after the bells stopped ringing, the assembly's entrances and exits would be locked and would remain so until the voting concluded.
Thereafter, Sadiq read out the names of the contenders, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif and PTI's Shah Mahmood Qureshi. In a slip of tongue, he named PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif as one of the contenders initially and quickly corrected himself, clarifying that he meant to say Shehbaz.
"I apologise Shehbaz sahab, Nawaz's name remains in my heart."
Sadiq then asked the lawmakers supporting Shehbaz to proceed to lobbies on his left side for voting. Similarly, he asked those who wanted to vote in favour of Qureshi to proceed to the lobby on his right side to cast their votes.
The voting has ended and the result sheet has reached the NA secretary who is counting the votes.
The NA session for the election of the prime minister today began with the recitation of the Holy Quran.
After the recitation, Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri, who was initially chairing the session, explained his rationale behind his contentious ruling to dismiss the no-confidence motion against erstwhile Prime Minister Imran Khan on April 3.
"The ruling was declared unconstitutional by the court ... and we all are obliged to respect the court. But I want to tell you the reason behind my ruling," he said, adding that he had taken the decision "as a responsible Pakistani and deputy speaker of the NA".
