Meet the new prime minister

Published August 1, 2017
PML-N nominee for PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. —File
PML-N nominee for PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi. —File

PML-N’s Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was elected prime minister of Pakistan by lawmakers on Tuesday.

Abbasi, an electrical engineer with a master's degree from George Washington University, served as the minister of petroleum and natural resources in Nawaz Sharif’s third term, which ended on July 28, 2017 after the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualified him as Pakistan’s prime minister.

Abbasi, 58, has remained mostly unbeaten in his political career, having only lost to PPP candidate Ghulam Murtaza Satti in 2002. However, aside from that particular contest, he has won every election he has contested in from 1988 till 2013.

Abbasi has represented Rawalpindi since first being elected a member of the National Assembly in 1988. He was elected after the death of his father, Khaqan Abbasi — the then minister of production.

He was elected as member of the National Assembly in the 1990 general elections for the second time and made parliamentary secretary for defence.

In the 1993 general elections, he was elected to parliament once more and held office as the chairman of the National Assembly's Standing Committee on Defence.

Abbasi was elected again, for the fourth time, in 1997, and served as Chairman of Pakistan International Airlines from 1997 to 1999 in Nawaz Sharif’s second term.

The interim prime minister-designate briefly held the positions of Minister for Commerce and Ministry of Defense Production in Yousuf Raza Gilani’s government in 2008.

An inquiry against Abbasi in a Rs220 billion corruption case was wrapped up by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in December, 2016. He was a principal accused in the NAB case registered in 2015 regarding award of a liquefied natural gas import contract.

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