Khaqan Abbasi will hold PM office till Shahbaz Sharif is not elected to the National Assembly in 45 days
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the former Petroleum and Gas Minister, has been appointed as the interim Prime Minister of the country after the position was left vacant following the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif by the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Shahid Khaqan will be the interim PM for 45 days till Shahbaz is elected to Parliament until Shahbaz Sharif is elected to the National Assembly.
Shahbaz will also have to forego his seat in the Punjab Assembly and his successor will need to be chosen. Sources claim that Punjab Excise and Taxation Minister Mujtaba Shujaur Rehman is likely to replace Shahbaz as the chief minister Punjab.
Who is Shahid Khaqan Abbasi?
Khaqan Abbasi the current chairman of Airblue obtained his Master of Engineering in electrical engineering George Washington University in 1985. Previously he had attended the University of California, Los Angeles to study electrical engineering.
Khaqan Abbasi was born on 27th December 1958. His political career began in 1988, when he was elected as the Member of the National Assembly in the general elections of 1988 after the death of his father Khaqan Abbasi.
He has been an elected Member of the National Assembly since 1988 from Rawalpindi losing only once in 2002 to a PPP candidate
He most recently held the portfolio of Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources from 2013 to 2017. Before that he served as the Minister for Commerce and Ministry of Defence Production in 2008 for the Yousaf Raza Gilani Ministry.
Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has served as the chairman of PIA when Nawaz Sharif’s government was dismissed by Gen. (r) Pervez Musharraf in 1999. Abbasi was jailed by Musharraf administrator for two years when in 2001 he was acquitted.
Now, after Nawaz Sharif was disqualified by the apex court, PML-N has agreed to nominate Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the interim prime minister till Shehbaz Sharif is not elected as the full time premier.