Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Shehbaz Sharif, all set to succeed Imran Khan as the country’s next Prime Minister, on Sunday paid tribute to his elder brother, Nawaz Sharif, and a host of other party leaders. “I recall how Mian Nawaz Sharif, Maryam Nawaz, Shahid Khaqan, Khawaja Asif, Saad Rafique, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Hamza, Hanif Abbasi, Mian Nauman et al. were hounded, stigmatized & put behind bars. Can’t appreciate enough the sacrifices & political struggle of PMLN family!,” Sharif posted on Twitter, a day before he is expected to be formally elected as the nuclear-armed nation’s new chief executive.The 70-year-old, a former 3-term chief minister of Punjab, also thanked several others, who, he said, ‘did not allow any pressure to dent their loyalty and commitment to the party and Pakistan.’ He tweeted, “I also cannot forget Salman Rafique, Kamran Michael, Miftah Ismael & Qamarul Islam whose steadfastness and sacrifices in the face of the brutal Niazi-NAB nexus have been legendary.”If elected, which he is most likely to since the numbers are with the united opposition, Sharif will be Pakistan’s twenty-third premier, and second from his family, after Nawaz Sharif, who served three terms, and is currently in exile in London. Incidentally, no Pakistani Prime Minister has completed a full five-year term yet.Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the foreign minister in the ousted Imran Khan government is the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) candidate for the top post.Meanwhile, reacting for the first time since his removal, the cricketer-turned politician called for a ‘fresh’ freedom struggle. “Pakistan became an independent state in 1947; but the freedom struggle begins again today against a foreign conspiracy of regime change. It is always the people of the country who defend their sovereignty & democracy,” he tweeted.Khan was sworn-in on August 18, 2018. However, he was accused by the opposition of being ‘installed’ by the army and, therefore, was repeatedly taunted with jibes such as ‘selected’ and ‘puppet’ Prime Minister.
