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Sharif Loyalist Abbasi Elected Pakistani Prime Minister


Shahid Khaqan Abbasi
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi

Pakistani lawmakers have elected a new prime minister to replace Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted last week over corruption allegations.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party used its commanding majority in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, to install Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in an August 1 vote in which he received 221 votes.

There are 342 seats in the National Assembly.

Syev Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan People's Party received 44 votes and Sheikh Rashid Ahmad of the Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaaf received 33 votes.

Sharif’s party nominated Abbasi, a former oil minister, to take on a caretaker role until Sharif's younger brother can take over.

Shahbaz Sharif, currently the chief minister of Punjab Province, needs to win a parliamentary by-election to become eligible to be prime minister -- a process that would take about two months.

Nawaz Sharif resigned as prime minister on July 28 after the Supreme Court ordered his disqualification in a case linking him and his family to offshore wealth revealed in the leaked Panama Papers last year.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

With reporting by Reuters and AP

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