Who is Shehbaz Sharif - the politician expected to lead Pakistan?

Newly elected members of parliament in Pakistan are expected to vote in 73-year-old Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as prime minister for the next five years in the maiden parliamentary session scheduled for the end of February.

Shehbaz is the younger brother of the three-time premier Nawaz Sharif.

He held the prime minister’s office for 16 months after a vote of no confidence toppled cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s government in April 2022.

Known for his administrative skills, Shehbaz has also served as chief minister in the Punjab province, the largest of the four federating units, in three stints of varying lengths since the late 1990s.

No single party won more than 50 percent seats in the 336-member National Assembly in the February 8 general election.

The election has been marred by allegations of pre- and post-poll rigging. The divided mandate has led to the formation of a coalition of political parties aligned against the so-called independent candidates who won the highest number of seats with the explicit backing of former premier Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Neither Khan nor his party was allowed to contest the general election on legal grounds.

Shehbaz’s extended stints at the helm of the country’s largest province earned him a reputation as a “doer” for swiftly completing big-ticket infrastructure projects such as bridges, underpasses and a metro line. At the same time, he’s also faced corruption charges and remained in jail but subsequently received a clean chit in all cases.

In contrast, his brief term as prime minister was marked by inflationary headwinds, record-high interest rates and political infighting amid thorny negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to fend off a sovereign default.

As the day draws near when parliamentarians vote on the new prime minister, questions are being asked if Shehbaz has what it takes to help Pakistan come out of a difficult time.

‘Nothing in common with elder Sharif’

Even though Shehbaz has always played second fiddle to his elder sibling in the political arena, people who know the two brothers say their personalities as well as their politics are distinctly different from each other’s.

“They’re together in the same political party only because they’re brothers and belong to a close-knit family. They’ve nothing in common otherwise,” former governor of the Sindh province Muhammad Zubair tells TRT World.

“Nawaz is pro-big business, Shehbaz is anti-big business. Nawaz is in favour of lower taxes, Shehbaz is all for higher taxes on the rich. I’d even say that Shehbaz is socialist while Nawaz is staunchly capitalist,” says Zubair who also served as privatisation minister in the elder Sharif’s cabinet from 2013 to 2017.

The two brothers have markedly different lifestyles. While Nawaz dresses like a rich man, Shehbaz is mostly seen in a safari suit that looks more like a worn-out boy-scout uniform. Unlike the elder Sharif who lives in a mansion built over a vast tract of suburban real estate, Shehbaz lives in a “modest” house that can easily be mistaken for the residence of any well-off businessman in the city of Lahore, Zubair says.

But most important of all, the biggest difference between the two Sharifs is in their approach towards the so-called establishment, a euphemism for the military that politicians accuse of meddling in political affairs.

“Shehbaz gets along with the establishment even though Nawaz’s relationship with the powers that be has always been bitter,” says Zubair.

Nawaz failed to complete any of his three terms as prime minister. Pakistan’s military has long been accused of meddling in politics, at times playing an active role in deciding who gets to sit in the prime minister’s office.

Zubair says Shehbaz wouldn’t badmouth the establishment even in private meetings with close aides. “He’s always maintained that politicians must learn to work with the establishment. He believes they’re good, patriotic people who want the best for the country,” Zubair says.

But is that the only reason why the PML-N has fielded the younger Sharif as a candidate for the upcoming parliamentary vote for premiership?

Zubair says Nawaz stepping aside for Shehbaz to become prime minister has more to do with the fact that their PML-N party failed to win a majority of seats.

“Nawaz has always had a triumphant return to power every time he lost a government. That’s not the case this time. He wants to be in office only when the electoral strength is strong enough for him to take big decisions,” he says.

Punjab province has been the bedrock of the Sharif brothers’ political power. But their PML-N party wasn’t able to secure a majority in the province despite weeks-long campaigning.

Political analyst Suhail Warriach tells TRT World that PML-N has fielded its second-best candidate for the premiership.

“Shehbaz is a good manager, but he isn’t as politically suave as Nawaz. Shehbaz has taken a lot of administrative decisions, but he hasn’t done much politics per se,” he says.

Warriach says the tumultuous 16-month stint of Shehbaz as prime minister that lasted until August 2023 was a testament to his lack of capacity for political wheeling and dealing.

Shehbaz’s finance minister Miftah Ismail resigned just five months into the job even though he played a central role in reviving an IMF loan programme and bringing the country back from the brink of a sovereign default.

Shehbaz replaced Ismail with Ishaq Dar, a relative of the elder Sharif who had twice served as finance minister in previous PML-N governments. Ismail later accused Dar of publicly undermining him to get the finance minister’s job.

However, Dr Khalid Manzoor Butt, dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Central Punjab, says Shehbaz is a better choice than Nawaz because the former can work with the military establishment.

“He has the rare quality of getting along with the establishment, the bureaucracy, and the political class -- a quality that’s absent in both Nawaz and Imran,” he tells TRT World.

Sharif will be more effective as prime minister this time around, he says. Unlike last time, PML-N is likely to have a stable government in the Punjab province, which will strengthen Sharif’s political capital in Islamabad, he says.

‘Workaholic, methodical, no-nonsense boss’

Scion of a Punjabi-speaking wealthy family from Kashmir, Shehbaz received his entire formal education in Lahore. He joined his father’s steel-making business after graduating with a bachelor of arts degree from Government College, Lahore.

He received his first taste of politics in a trade body election in 1985 when he became president of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

His first general election victory followed in 1988 when he was elected to the provincial legislature. Shehbaz has won every national or provincial election he’s fought since then.

As a top administrator of the country’s largest province for many years, Shehbaz came to be known as a stern disciplinarian. The province is ahead of the other three federating units on the Human Development Index. It’s also the only province in the medium human development category while the others remain stuck in the low human development category.

“He’s incredibly hardworking. His day begins at 5 am and he works as late as two in the morning. He’s a workaholic. He’s methodical and a no-nonsense boss,” says Umar Saif, who worked directly with Shehbaz for seven years as his IT and digitisation czar in Punjab.

Besides Punjabi, Urdu, and English, Shehbaz speaks basic German, Arabic, and Turkish languages. He’s maintained a close working relationship with Türkiye since his time as chief minister of the Punjab province.

“There was a time when we’d go to Türkiye every few weeks. Lahore’s metro bus system is an exact replica of Istanbul’s. From the automatic fare collection system to the announcements and parking systems, everything is borrowed from the Turkish model. So is the solid waste management system that Shehbaz implemented in Lahore,” says Saif.

“He’s the best project manager I’ve ever worked with.”