STATE TIMES NEWS
ISLAMABAD: Pledging to revive Pakistan’s debt-trapped economy and eradicate terrorism, newly-elected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday said his government would not allow the country to become part of some “great game” and would maintain cordial relations with neighbours based on the principles of equality.
In his victory speech in the National Assembly soon after he was elected as the 24th prime minister and for a second time since 2022, the 72-year-old profusely thanked his elder brother and three-time former premier Nawaz Sharif and allies for putting their trust in him and allowing him to head a coalition government after last month’s election resulted in a hung Parliament.
While Shehbaz secured 201 votes, his challenger Omar Ayub Khan of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) got only 92 votes in the election held at the newly-elected National Assembly. Shehbaz said that as no party secured a clear parliamentary majority, it was “the democratic way” that “like-minded parties may form a coalition government”.
He said that his government would work hard and set a goal to become a member of G20 countries by 2030. The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s major developed and developing economies. “We will keep ties with neighbours on the basis of equality,” Shehbaz said.