Deposed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has named his younger brother Shahbaz to replace him as the country's leader, after having been removed from office by the Supreme Court a day earlier for lying on a wealth declaration. Addressing a televised meeting of leaders of his PML-N party in Islamabad on Saturday, the elder Sharif said he accepted the Supreme Court's verdict, but did not agree with it.

Shahbaz Sharif, currently the chief minister of Punjab province, which is Pakistan's most populous region and the Sharif's political heartland, will have to resign from that post and run for a by-election to join Parliament before he is elected as prime minister.

In the interim period, Nawaz Sharif said, party leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi would serve as the country's prime minister. "It will take Shahbaz some time to be elected, about 50 days ... so in the interim period … I suggest Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the candidate," the former prime minister said.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain is due to convene a session of Parliament shortly to elect Abbasi to the post. Sharif's PML-N party holds a comfortable majority in the lower house of Parliament and the election is expected to pass without much drama.

Courtesy:Al Jazeera