Shehbaz Sharif
Shehbaz Sharif has been Prime Minister of Pakistan since March 2024, and held the office previously from April 2022 to August 2023. Born in Lahore in 1951 into the Punjabi industrial family that owns the Ittefaq Group, he is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, three times prime minister, and built his own reputation as an administrator rather than a national politician. He was chief minister of Punjab, Pakistan's largest province with more than half the population, for three terms totalling around thirteen years. His record there is one of visible infrastructure delivered fast: the Lahore Metrobus, the Orange Line metro, motorways and a dengue-control programme widely regarded as effective. He was known for punishing working hours and for bypassing bureaucratic process, which produced results and also complaints about procurement. The family was removed by Pervez Musharraf's coup in 1999 and spent years in exile in Saudi Arabia, returning in 2007. Shehbaz became prime minister in 2022 after a no-confidence vote removed Imran Khan, leading a coalition of a dozen parties whose only common ground was opposition to Khan. His first term coincided with the worst economic crisis in Pakistan's history: reserves fell to a few weeks of imports, inflation passed thirty-eight per cent, and default was avoided only by a last-minute IMF standby arrangement in mid-2023. The catastrophic floods of 2022 submerged a third of the country and displaced eight million people. He returned after the contested February 2024 election. His second term has focused on an IMF programme, privatisation of loss-making state enterprises including the national airline, and the military's dominant role in politics.
- Lived: 1951 CE – ?
- Nationality: Pakistani
- Roles: Prime Minister of Pakistan (2022-2023), Prime Minister of Pakistan (2024-present)
