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Who is Shehbaz Sharif?
Shehbaz Sharif is a Pakistani politician, who is currently serving as the Prime Minister of the nation. Shehbaz, formerly the Leader of Opposition in the Pakistan National Assembly, was sworn in as Pakistan PM on April 11, 2022 after ex-prime minister Imran Khan was ousted in a no-confidence motion.
Life and education
Shehbaz Sharif was born on September 23, 1951 in a Punjabi-speaking Kashmiri family in Lahore. He is the younger brother of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif. Shehbaz's father hailed from Kashmir's Anantnag (in India) while his mother hailed from Pulwama. His parents migrated to Pakistan after the 1947 partition.
Shehbaz married five times and presently he has two wives, Nusrat and Tehmina. In 1973, he married his cousin, Nusrat Shehbaz, with whom he has two sons and three daughters. He has one daughter from his ex-wife Alia.
He married Tehmina Durrani, his second wife, in 2003. Shehbaz did his graduation in Bachelors of Arts from Lahore's Government College University.
Career
Shehbaz, after completing his graduation, joined his family-owned Ittefaq Group and in 1985, was elected as the president of Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
He entered politics alongside his elder brother Nawaz in the mid-1980s. In 1988, he was elected as a member of Punjab Assembly when Nawaz became Punjab's chief minister.
In 1997, when Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz became the chief minister of Punjab. In the 1999 army coup led by General Pervez Musharraf, when Nawaz's government was toppled, Shehbaz, alongside his entire family, spent eight years in Saudi Arabia in exile. They returned to Pakistan in 2007.
Shehbaz again became Punjab's chief minister in 2008 and for the third time in 2013.
He was elected as the president of Pakistan Muslim League (N) in 2017 after Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from holding office due to the Panama Papers case.
In 2018, when cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan was elected as the Prime Minister, Shehbaz became the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly.
In 2020, Shehbaz was arrested by the anti-graft body on the charges of money laundering and income beyond means case and spent several months in jail before he got bail.
Shehbaz became prime minister of Pakistan after Imran Khan was ousted in a non-trust motion.