Explained: Who is Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Imran Khan’s man for PM

New Delhi, Apr 11: After Imran Khan was ousted from power, former foreign minister of Pakistan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi filed his nomination for the post of Prime Minister. After the no-trust vote held on Saturday, Qureshi filed his nomination and it was backed by Amir Dogar and seconded by Maleeka Bokari.

The Opposition parties which brought the no-trust vote had their way, following which they nominated PML(N) chief, Shahbaz Sharif as their prime ministerial candidate. Pakistan's national general assembly will elect a new PM today at 2 pm.

Nomination papers of Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif and Shah Mehmood Qureshi for the election of Leader of the House/Prime Minister accepted. Nomination papers were scrutinised. After scrutiny, nomination papers of both the candidates were accepted," the national general assembly said in a tweet.

Who is Shah Mahmood Qureshi:

Qureshi served as the foreign minister of Pakistan between 2008 to 2011 and 2018 to 2022. He hails from a wealthy family in Multan. Qureshi was born on June 22 1966 and graduated from the Aitchison College, Lahore.

He went on to do his law from the Cambridge University and then obtained a Master's Degree in History from the Corpus Christi College.

The beginning of his political career:

He was elected from Multan to the Punjab assembly in 1985. In 1986 he joined the Pakistan Muslim League and was associated with former prime minister of Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif.

He was again elected to the Punjab assembly in 1988 and then served as a the minister of planning and development in the Nawaz Sharif Cabinet. In 1990 he also served as the Finance Minister of Punjab.

In 2006, he left the PML and joined the Pakistan Peoples Party in 1993. Under Benazir Bhutto he served as the minister of state for parliamentary affairs. In 1996, he was appointed as the spokesperson of the PPP.

In 2006, he was appointed as the President of the PPP in Punjab. Qureshi was the frontrunner to be PM in 2008, but he ended up getting the post of foreign minister.

Stint as foreign minister:

Qureshi as foreign minister had to deal with important foreign relations especially in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks of 2008.

He was subsequently dropped from the cabinet owing to the Raymond Davis fiasco. In 2011, he joined the PTI and has been a member of the party since then.