Key players behind Pakistan PM’s ouster

Pakistan Muslim League-N president Shehbaz Sharif (C) speaks with the media before attending a hearing outside the Supreme Court building in Islamabad on April 7, 2022. – AFP photo.

Imran Khan was thrown out of office as Pakistan prime minister on Sunday after losing a no-confidence vote in the national assembly.

The drama caps weeks of machinations by the opposition aimed at unraveling the tenuous coalition Khan built around his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to become prime minister in 2018.

The key players in the saga are Shehbaz Sharif, Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, and Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The brother of three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif — who has been disqualified from ever again running for office and is currently in exile in Britain — Shehbaz is the main candidate to replace Khan.

The 70-year-old is a political heavyweight in his own right, however, having served as chief minister of Punjab, the family’s power base, and now as president of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N).

He remains popular despite lurid tabloid headlines about multiple marriages and a property portfolio that includes luxury apartments in London and Dubai.

Hailing from a wealthy Sindh family, Zardari was better known for his playboy lifestyle until an arranged marriage saw him wed Benazir Bhutto shortly before she became prime minister for the first time.

He took to politics with gusto, earning himself the nickname ‘Mr Ten Percent’ for the cut he allegedly took from government contracts, and was twice jailed on charges related to corruption, drug smuggling and murder — although never faced trial.

The 67-year-old became co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) after the assassination of Bhutto in 2007, and became president of the country a year later in a power-sharing deal with the PML-N.

The son of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Zardari is political royalty and became chairman of the PPP aged just 19 following his mother’s assassination.

The Oxford-educated 33-year-old is considered a progressive, in his mother’s image, and has frequently spoken out on the rights of women and minorities.

With more than half of Pakistan’s population aged 22 or below, Bhutto’s social media savvy is a hit with the young, although he is frequently mocked for a poor command of Urdu, the national language.

After starting political life as a firebrand Islamist hardliner, Maulana Fazlur Rehman has softened his public image over the years with a flexibility that has seen him forge alliances with secular parties on the left and right of the spectrum.

With the ability to mobilise tens of thousands of madrassa students, his Jamiatul Ulema-e-Islam (F) party never musters enough support for power on its own but is usually a key player in any government.

His enmity with Imran Khan runs deep, calling him ‘a Jew’ in reference to his former marriage to Briton Jemima Goldsmith.

Imran Khan, in return, calls him ‘Mullah Diesel’ for his alleged participation in graft involving fuel licenses.

AFP