Gaffe in Pak Parliament: Speaker Names Nawaz Sharif As PM Instead Of Shehbaz Sharif

Sadiq read a paper bearing the name of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) President Shehbaz Sharif before conducting voting in the National Assembly to pick the next prime minister.

Pakistan's 23rd Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. (Source: Getty Images)

New Delhi: In an unexpected slip of the tongue, Pakistan's National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq pronounced the name of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif rather than Shehbaz Sharif during the key session to pick Imran Khan's successor on Monday, and afterwards apologised for his error, news agency PTI reported.

Sadiq read a paper bearing the name of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) President Shehbaz Sharif before conducting voting in the National Assembly to pick the next prime minister.

However, the Speaker pronounced the name of Nawaz Sharif, who is now in London.

Sadiq admitted his error and apologised, stating the PML-N supremo was in his heart as well as his head, after realising he had uttered the wrong name.

A handful of PML-(N) parliamentarians and PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz were spotted clutching portraits of Nawaz Sharif in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament, to demonstrate their support.

Shehbaz Sharif, 70, was chosen unopposed as Pakistan's next Prime Minister by Parliament after opposition candidate Shah Mahmood Qureshi stated his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party would boycott the election and stage a walkout.

Shehbaz Sharif won 174 votes, two more than the 172 required for a simple majority. He is Pakistan's 23rd Prime Minister.

Nawaz Sharif is likely to return from London after Eid next month, according to senior PML-N leader Mian Javed Latif, who said that the decision on the three-time prime minister's anticipated homecoming will be addressed with coalition partners. Eid will take place in the first week of May.

Several corruption proceedings have been filed by the government of ex-prime minister Khan against the 72-year-old PML-(N) supremo following his removal from power by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case in July 2017.

Nawaz Sharif travelled to London in November 2019 after the Lahore High Court gave him four-week permission to travel abroad for treatment.

He had made an assurance to the Lahore High Court, citing his record, to return to Pakistan and face the process of law and justice within four weeks, or as soon as physicians judged him well and fit to go.

Nawaz Sharif was also granted bail in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case, in which he had been imprisoned for seven years at Lahore's Kot Lakhpat prison.

(With PTI Inputs)