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Pakistan's Shehbaz Sharif Set to Take Oath as Prime Minister for Second Term

Pakistan's former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party Shehbaz Sharif speaks during a press conference in Lahore on February 13, 2024. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)
Pakistan's former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party Shehbaz Sharif speaks during a press conference in Lahore on February 13, 2024. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)
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Pakistan's Shehbaz Sharif Set to Take Oath as Prime Minister for Second Term

Pakistan's former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party Shehbaz Sharif speaks during a press conference in Lahore on February 13, 2024. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)
Pakistan's former Prime Minister and leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party Shehbaz Sharif speaks during a press conference in Lahore on February 13, 2024. (Photo by Arif ALI / AFP)

Pakistani politician Shehbaz Sharif was set on Sunday to become prime minister for the second time in a vote by the country's newly formed parliament, three weeks after uncertain national elections led to the formation of a coalition government.
Pakistan went to the polls on Feb. 8 in a vote marred by a mobile internet shutdown on election day; arrests and violence in its build-up; and unusually delayed results, leading to accusations that the vote was rigged, Reuters said.
Sharif will return to the role he held until August when parliament was dissolved ahead of the elections and a caretaker government took charge.
The vote in the country's parliament, which first met on Thursday, will take place amidst tight security as candidates backed by former jailed premier Imran Khan have protested against the election result and called for his release.
Sharif, 72, is the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who spearheaded their Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party's election campaign.
Candidates backed by Khan gained the most seats but the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party agreed to form a coalition government, which enabled Shehbaz Sharif to be elected as prime minister as his brother stepped aside.
In his previous term, Sharif's government was able to negotiate a critical International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal but the process was mired in challenges and measures required by the agreement - which expires in April - have contributed to rising prices and added pressure on poor and middle class households.
The new government will have to immediately start talks with the IMF for the next agreement to shore up the country's economy whilst also dealing with the growing discontent over deepening poverty.

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UN: Women's Rights Are Under Attack 30 Years after Leaders Adopted Blueprint for Equality

Women walk to the market near Nzara, South Sudan on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Women walk to the market near Nzara, South Sudan on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
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UN: Women's Rights Are Under Attack 30 Years after Leaders Adopted Blueprint for Equality

Women walk to the market near Nzara, South Sudan on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)
Women walk to the market near Nzara, South Sudan on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga)

Thirty years after world leaders adopted a historic blueprint to achieve gender equality, a new United Nations report says women’s and girls’ rights are under attack and gender discrimination remains deeply embedded in economies and societies.
The report released Thursday by the UN agency focused on women’s rights and gender equality found that nearly one-quarter of governments worldwide reported a backlash to women’s rights last year.
Despite some progress, including on girls’ education and access to family planning, UN Women said a woman or girl is killed every 10 minutes by a partner or family member and that cases of conflict-related sexual violence have increased by 50% since 2022. The report, released ahead of International Women’s Day on Saturday, also noted that only 87 countries have ever been led by a woman.
“Globally, women’s human rights are under attack,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “Instead of mainstreaming equal rights, we’re seeing the mainstreaming of misogyny.”
According to The Associated Press, he said the world must stand firm “in making human rights, equality and empowerment a reality for all women and girls, for everyone, everywhere.”
The 189 countries that attended a 1995 Beijing women’s conference adopted a landmark declaration and 150-page platform for action to achieve gender equality, calling for bold action in 12 areas, including combating poverty and gender-based violence and putting women at top levels in business, government and at peacemaking tables.
It also said for the first time in a UN document that human rights include the right of women to control and decide “on matters relating to their sexuality, including their sexual and reproductive health, free of discrimination, coercion and violence.”
In the new review, which includes contributions from 159 countries, UN Women said countries have taken many steps forward on gender equality and women’s rights in the past five years but that such rights still are facing growing threats worldwide.
On the positive side, the report said some 88% of countries have passed laws to combat violence against women and established services to help victims in the past five years. Most countries have banned workplace discrimination, and 44% are improving the quality of education and training for girls and women, it said.
Yet gender discrimination is deeply embedded, with wide gaps in power and resources that restrain women’s rights, the report said.
“The weakening of democratic institutions has gone hand in hand with backlash on gender equality,” UN Women said.
It warned that “anti-rights actors are actively undermining longstanding consensus on key women’s rights issues” and seeking to block or slow legal and policy gains they can’t roll back.
UN Women said almost 25% of countries reported that backlash on gender equality is hampering implementation of the Beijing platform.
According to the report, women have only 64% of the legal rights of men, and while the proportion of female lawmakers has more than doubled since 1995, three-quarters of lawmakers are still men.
UN Women also said women aged 15 to 24 lag behind other age groups on access to modern family planning; maternal mortality ratios have remained almost unchanged since 2015; and 10% of women and girls live in extremely poor households.
The UN agency said cases of conflict-related sexual violence have increased 50% since 2022 — and women and girls are victims of 95% of these crimes.
UN Women Executive Director Sima Bahous said that based on the report’s findings, the agency has adopted a roadmap to bring the world closer to the UN goal of achieving gender equality by 2030.
It calls for a digital revolution ensuring equal access to technology for all women and girls; investments in social protections, including universal health care and quality education to lift them out of poverty; and zero violence against girls and women. The roadmap also includes equal decision-making power for women and financing for “gender-responsive humanitarian aid” in conflicts and crises.