• Shehbaz Sharif was sworn in as Pakistan’s 24th Prime Minister, taking over the reins of the country for a second time since 2022.

• President Arif Alvi administered the oath to the 72-year-old Shehbaz in a ceremony held at the Aiwan-e-Sadr, the presidential residence, on March 4. 

• In the elections held last month, candidates backed by former PM Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) gained the most seats, but the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) agreed to form a coalition government. 

• The PML-N is spearheaded by Shehbaz Sharif’s elder brother, three time premier Nawaz Sharif, but he decided not to take the Prime Minister’s post.

• Shehbaz, the consensus candidate of the PML-N and the PPP, received 201 votes in the 336-member Parliament.

Who is Shehbaz Sharif?

• Shehbaz earlier served as Prime Minister of a coalition government from April 2022 to August 2023 before Parliament was dissolved to hold general elections in February 2024.

• Shehbaz is the younger brother of three-time PM Nawaz Sharif.

• Nawaz Sharif was dismissed in 2017 and later jailed for 10 years by an accountability court on graft charges after revelations from the Panama Papers, but was released to seek medical treatment abroad.

• Shehbaz Sharif jointly inherited the family’s steel business as a young man and was first elected to provincial office in 1988.

• After a four-year-long stint as the leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly, Sharif became the chief minister of the province for the first time in 1997. He became the CM of Punjab again in 2008 and 2013, making him the longest serving chief minister.

• Shehbaz Sharif is also mired in graft proceedings. In 2019, the National Accountability Bureau seized nearly two dozen properties belonging to him and his son Hamza, accusing them of money laundering. He was arrested and detained in September 2020, but released six months later on bail.

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