New political row in Pakistan as Punjab chief minister sworn in

NEW DELHI: A new political row erupted in Pakistan as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's son Hamza Shehbaz was sworn in as chief minister of Punjab province on Saturday.

Hamza, 47, was given the oath of office by National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf at a ceremony held at the Governor House in Lahore following a court order.

Hamza, a leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was elected as the new chief minsiter by PML-N and its allies in the Punjab provincial assembly two weeks ago amid a ruckus.

He received 197 votes in the 371-member house but the process, marred by violence and unprecedented police intervention, was called flawed by Punjab Governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema.

The governor, who is the province's ceremonial head, has refused to accept Hamza as Punjab's chief minister.

Omar earlier on Saturday restored the government of Usman Buzdar, who had resigned to make way for a political ally to replace him as chief minister of the province which is the home to more than half of Pakistan's 220 million population.

Buzdar belongs to former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and the Punjab political crisis is part of the wider Pakistan power struggle in which Imran's federal government was recently ousted via a court-directed no-confidence vote.

-- BERNAMA