With Imran Khan out, Sharif and ex-minister Qureshi to face off for PM post on Monday

With Imran Khan booted out of the office after losing the no-confidence motion, the battle for the new premiership is set to begin tomorrow (April 11) when Pakistan’s National Assembly (NA) will be reconvened to elect a new prime minister.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has nominated former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as PM candidate, while the joint opposition has named Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Shehbaz Sharif, the brother of former PM Nawaz Sharif.

Both of them filed their nomination papers earlier today on Sunday which are being scrutinised.

According to Dawn newspaper, the NA secretariat had earlier issued a statement delaying the timing of submitting the nomination papers but later retracted it after the opposition members condemned the move.

According to the secretariat, the PTI had requested to delay the timings, reports the newspaper.

The National Assembly will reconvene on Monday at 2 pm (local time) where the voting will take place to elect a new prime minister.

Meanwhile, PTI Leader Fawad Chaudhry has said that if Shahbaz Sharif's nomination papers are accepted then they will be resigning en mass from the assemblies.

PTI also announced that they will stage protests across Pakistan today evening (Sunda), which will be led by Imran Khan.

On Saturday midnight, Khan was ousted from the prime minister’s office after the NA passed a no-confidence motion following a debate that lasted for more than 12 hours.

The session was chaired by Ayaz Sadiq — a member of the panel of chairs — after speaker Asad Qasier resigned from his post.

In the 342-member house, a majority of 174 MPs voted in favour of the resolution of vote of no-confidence against Imran Khan.

"174 members have recorded their votes in favour of the resolution, consequently the resolution for the vote on no-confidence against Imran Khan, the prime minister of Pakistan, has been passed by a majority," Ayaz Sadiq announced after the process of voting was completed.

Once the voting was concluded and the result was announced, Opposition leaders delivered their victory speeches.

Watch |Pakistan political crisis: Shehbaz Sharif nominated as PM candidate by the opposition

(With inputs from agencies)