Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday announced that his younger brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be his party’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2018 general elections, Dawn reported.
He made the announcement at a meeting of senior leaders of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz at his house in Jati Umra locality.
Nawaz Sharif said Shehbaz Sharif had never disappointed him or the party and had grown because of his hard work and performance. “Shehbaz has never opposed my opinion,” he said, according to The Express Tribune. “He has vast administrative experience.”
In July, Pakistan’s top court disqualified Nawaz Sharif from holding the prime minister’s office after corruption charges surfaced against him and his family in the Panama Papers case.
Soon after, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was sworn in as interim premier. He was to only serve till Shehbaz Sharif could contest his brother’s vacated national Assembly seat. But Shehbaz’s decision to nominate his son Hamza as the next chief minister of Punjab province is believed to have angered his brother, the Hindustan Times reported.
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