Shehbaz Sharif elected as Pakistan's new prime minister

Shehbaz Sharif, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president, was elected unopposed as the new prime minister of Pakistan by Parliament on Monday after rival candidate Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party will boycott the voting and staged a walkout.

Shehbaz, 70, was the only candidate left in the race after Qureshi's boycott of the election in the National Assembly.

In the House of 342, the winning candidate should get support of at least 172 lawmakers.

Shehbaz, the younger brother of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, received 174 votes - two more than the simple majority of 172.

He is the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan. He has served as chief minister of the country's most populous and politically crucial Punjab province thrice.

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Former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chair Asif Ali Zardari had proposed Shehbaz's name for prime minister's position in a joint opposition's meeting to replace Imran Khan through a no-confidence motion.

The process of electing the new leader of the House began on Sunday after prime minister Imran Khan was removed from office through the no-confidence vote, becoming the first premier in the country's history to be sent home after losing the trust of the House.

Ahead of the election of a new prime minister, Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) party had resigned from the Assembly.

The development came after Imran Khan said that he will not sit in the assemblies with 'thieves', reported ARY News.

"The man who has 16 billion and 8 billion rupees of corruption cases, whoever selects and elects the prime minister can not be a big insult to the country. We are resigning from the National Assembly," Imran Khan was quoted as saying by PTI's official Twitter account.

With input from agencies

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