In a phone call on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Erdogan called Sharif after taking the oath of office, according to the Turkish Communications Directorate.
After previous Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed in a no-confidence vote that he attempted to avert, Sharif was sworn in on Monday. Khan claimed that he was the victim of a US plot to assassinate him.
Erdogan expressed his hope that the election outcomes will be beneficial to Pakistan’s friendly and fraternal people. He added they keep a careful eye on events in Pakistan, to which Turkiye has a long history of friendliness and brotherhood.
He also stated that despite all of the challenges and limitations, Pakistan did not abandon democracy and the rule of law. He went on to say that Turkiye is ready to provide Pakistan with whatever assistance it needs, just as it has in the past.
Sharif, the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and a joint candidate of Pakistan’s combined opposition, received 174 votes in the National Assembly’s 342-member lower chamber.
A simple majority in parliament requires a minimum of 172 votes.
Following his party’s decision to withdraw from parliament, Sharif’s opponent, former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was the candidate of the ousted premier’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), boycotted the elections.
Ousted Prime Minister Khan together with over 120 PTI lawmakers announced that they were resigning from parliament and “taking to the streets against an imported government.”
The resignations, however, will not be in effect until the speaker of the National Assembly accepts them, according to the country’s constitution.