Pakistan’s ousted prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has begun preparations to install his younger brother, Shehbaz, as his successor, a day after he was forced out following a long-running corruption scandal focused on his adult children.
Shehbaz Sharif, who has served as chief minister of the politically important Punjab state since 2013, will have to resign from his post, and win a seat in the country’s National Assembly before he can assume his elder brother’s mantle as premier — a process that will take at least 45 days.
In the interim, Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party has agreed that Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, a former petroleum minister and staunch loyalist of the Sharif family, should serve as interim prime minister for about two months.