ISLAMABAD:The National Assembly (NA) on Monday elected Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif as 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Shehbaz obtained 174 votes against his rival candidate Shah Mahmood Qureshi got no vote as his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) MNAs boycotted the assembly session and staged a walk out from the assembly. The voting process in the session began under the chairmanship of Panel of Chair member and PML-N MNA Ayaz Sadiq when Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri said his conscience did not allow him to continue the session and handed the proceedings to Mr Sadiq.

Speaking at the session, Shehbaz Sharif restored Benazir Income Support Card and said that there was no justification to change the name of the card which was initiated with the name of late Mohtarma. He said that we would further expand the scope of the Benazir Card. He said that dollar had plunged by Rs8 rupees and has come down around Rs182. He appealed business community to raise salaries of their staff members at least 10 percent.

Shehbaz announced to raise minimum wage of govt employees to Rs25,000 besides increasing pension by 10 percent. He said if there was a shred of evidence that we had conspired to remove Imran Khan as PM with some foreign force through the no-confidence motion, he would immediately resign as PM.

The PM-elect said that the letter should be placed before the Parliamentary Committee on National Security in an in-camera briefing and should be probed to clear the air over this allegation of foreign conspiracy to oust Khan. He also announced to revive his laptop programme for students besides bringing cheap flour scheme for the poor in Ramazan.

Earlier, Suri started presiding over the session after recitation from Holy Quran and gave explanation regarding his April 3 ruling and said that he had acted upon the verdict of the respectable Supreme Court but it is high time to show this letter to the honorable judges of the apex court, therefore, he had sent that letter for them to review their verdict.

He said that as the ruling was declared unconstitutional by the court, we all are obliged to respect the court. But I want to tell you the reason behind my ruling,” he said, adding that he had taken the decision as a responsible Pakistani and deputy speaker of the NA.

Speaking at the session, former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that today’s constitutional process has to end today as some will be declared a winner today, while the other one will be declared free. The nation has two paths; one path is of self-respect while the other one is of slavery, he said.

Qureshi further said that MQM-Pakistan was in alliance with PTI and did strong opposition against PPP-led provincial government in Sindh Assembly for 4 years but now they [MQM-P] are supporting the same PPP which baton-charged them in Karachi over local government bill protest.

PTI also decided to resign from National Assembly after Prime Minister Imran Khan said that he would not sit in the assemblies with these thieves. Confirming the decision, Sheikh Rasheed said that sitting in the assemblies would further strengthen Shehbaz Sharif and therefore it has been decided to submit resignations from the National Assembly.