Who is Shehbaz Sharif, the front runner likely to replace ousted Pakistan PM Imran Khan?

The PML-N president is a flexible deal maker who has pledged to maintain cordial ties with the country’s powerful military

Tough challenges await the seasoned politician and the younger brother of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif as he inherits a stagnant economy

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Pakistan’s opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif. Photo: AFP

Published: 2:23pm, 10 Apr 2022

Shehbaz Sharif, expected to become Pakistan’s new prime minister on Monday after leading the opposition alliance that ousted Imran Khan, is a tough administrator with a penchant for quoting revolutionary poetry.

Sharif is the younger brother of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was dismissed then jailed on corruption charges in 2017 and is currently in Britain after being released from prison two years later for medical treatment.

He is a seasoned politician in his own right, however, having served for years as chief minister of Punjab province, the Sharif family’s power base, and also president of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).

The 70-year-old jointly inherited the family’s steel business as a young man and was first elected to provincial office in 1988.

During his stints as chief minister in the years that followed, he presided over a series of big-ticket infrastructure projects, including Pakistan’s first metro bus service.