M Humayun Kabir: For-mer cricket star PTI Chief Imran Khan has been elected the 22nd prime minister of Pakistan.
Khan won with 176 seats while his opponent, PML-N’s Shahbaz Sharif, secured 96 votes in the polling that took place in the National Assembly yesterday, reports BBC, Dawn.
His PTI party won the most seats in July’s elections – setting up Mr Khan to become PM with the help of small parties, more than two decades after he first entered politics. He will be sworn in on Saturday.
Mr Khan, 65, will inherit a country with a mounting economic crisis and he has vowed to create a “new Pakistan”.
The charismatic sports star, who captained Pakistan to a World Cup victory in 1992, ran on an anti-corruption platform that pledged to improve the lives of the country’s poor with an “Islamic welfare state”.
Before the election Mr Khan told the BBC that if he were to be elected, his initial focus would be on the economy. After the 25 July election, Mr Khan also vowed to hold talks with India to seek a resolution to the dispute over the Kashmir region, a key flashpoint between the nuclear-armed countries.
He also called for “mutually beneficial” ties with the United States, despite being an outspoken critic of that country’s anti-terrorism measures in the region, such as drone strikes. In the lead-up to the election, Mr Khan was widely seen as the favoured candidate of the powerful military, which was accused of meddling against his rivals.
Our time is a news portal