Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan turned 71 today, and well wishes continue to come in on social media. The longtime politician and president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was elected prime minister of the South Asian country for the first time in April. He took over when Imran Khan, his predecessor, was expelled from office by a vote of no confidence from the opposition party PML-N. On his birthday, several party leaders and fans have sent him well-wishes.
Sharif was born to a Kashmiri family on September 23, 1951, in the capital of Punjab. His paternal grandfather, Mian Muhammad Sharif, was a wealthy entrepreneur from Amritsar who moved to Lahore after Pakistan was founded in 1947.
In 1988, he was elected to the provincial legislature of Punjab, and in 1990, he was sworn in as a member of the federal legislature. The province of Punjab has had Shehbaz as its chief minister three times. After Musharaf’s coup, he fled to Saudi Arabia and remained there for eight years before finally returning to Pakistan in 2007.