Islamabad: Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who is set to become Pakistan’s interim Prime Minister, is the former federal minister for petroleum and natural resources, and a businessman who launched the country’s most successful private airline.
Considered highly intelligent and a long-time loyalist of Nawaz Sharif, the former Prime Minister who was ousted by the Supreme Court on Friday, the 58-year-old Abbasi will act as a placeholder for the Sharif dynasty.
He is due to be rubber stamped by in a parliamentary vote as Prime Minister until Sharif’s younger brother Shahbaz, a provincial minister, can be elected to the national assembly and take over the leadership.
Mr Abbasi was appointed oil minister when Nawaz Sharif won his third election in 2013. Educated in the US at George Washington University, he was born in Karachi but is a member of the National Assembly from Murree.
Mr Abbasi has been elected six times as a member of the National Assembly. In 2003, he setup a private airline Air Blue, the country’s most successful private airline and challenger to PIA.
