Pak Crisis: Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif Likely To Be Next PM

PTI supporters held rallies to support Imran Khan

Amid the Pak crisis, the 70-year-old younger brother of former three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and opposition leader, Shehbaz Sharif has been nominated as the joint candidate for the prime minister's election, scheduled today.

Moreover, on the other hand, Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party (PTI) has nominated Shah Mahmood Qureshi as their candidate.

The voting on the no-confidence motion against the Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government was held in the country's National Assembly late on Saturday night where 174 members recorded their votes in favour of the revolution that ousted the Imran Khan.

As of now, according to the officials, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Ali Muhammad Khan on Sunday claimed that 95 per cent of the Parliament from PTI are against resigning from the assembly.

The statement comes just a few hours after former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhary's press conference in Islamabad where he had said that his party members will resign from the National Assembly as the nomination of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shahbaz Sharif has been accepted by the National Assembly (NA) Secretariat, told Geo TV.

Ahead of the news, a large number of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf supporters held a protest rally in Lahore's Liberty Chowk against the ouster of former prime minister and party chairman Imran Khan through a no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition.

The charged PTI supporters, including women and children, showed their solidarity with Khan during the rally that started at 9 pm on Sunday and lasted till 3 am on Monday.

Big gatherings were also reported from other parts of the Punjab province, including Faisalabad, Multan, Gujranwala, Vehari, Jehlum and Gujrat districts. Islamabad and Karachi also witnessed major gatherings of PTI supporters.

After a humiliating defeat in the successful no-confidence vote against himself, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Sunday reiterated his 'foreign conspiracy' claim and said the "freedom struggle begins today". Meanwhile, Mr. Khan's party PTI has decided to resign from the National Assembly on Monday.

"Pakistan became an independent state in 1947, but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change. It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy," PM tweeted.

Shehbaz Sharif, Leader of the Opposition, is being considered a frontrunner to be Pakistan's next prime minister. He is little known outside Pakistan but has a reputation domestically as an effective administrator.