The FINANCIAL — A close aide of ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to replace him after a vote by lawmakers on August 1.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and five opposition lawmakers have submitted their candidacies for the country’s next head of government, according to RFE/RL’s Radio.
But Abbasi’s win is a near certainty as Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party holds a commanding majority in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament.
Abbasi’s term would be for an interim period ending when Sharif’s younger brother, Shahbaz, the chief minister of Punjab Province, becomes eligible to be prime minister by winning a parliamentary by-election — a process that would take about two months.
Sharif resigned 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 dpa, AP, and Dawn
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