Nawaz Sharif sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan's newly elected Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday evening took oath for the post at the President House in the capital Islamabad.

President Asif Ali Zardari administered the oath for Nawaz Sharif who assumed the office as the 27th chief executive of the country for the third term.

A large number of guests including veteran politicians and members of the parliament, former prime ministers, provincial governors and chief ministers, chiefs of the three services, envoys and ambassadors of different countries were present at the oath-taking ceremony.

The 64-year-old Nawaz, who came back into power after a gap of nearly 14 years, is the first Pakistani that reached the rank of premiership for the third time.

His last tenure as premier concluded in October 1999 when the then army chief Pervez Musharraf deposed his government in a military coup before sending him into exile.

Nawaz served the country as prime minister for two non- consecutive terms from November 1990 to July 1993 and from February 1997 to October 1999 respectively.

Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, Nawaz was elected as the prime minister after receiving 244 votes in the 342-member lower house of the parliament.

Makhdoom Amin Fahim, the candidate of the Pakistan People's Party that led the previous government, bagged 42 votes while Javed Hashmi, a candidate of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party, got 31 votes.

In his first address to the parliament as the prime minister, Nawaz vowed to mend the country's falling economy and solve the energy crises. He also called for an end to the U.S. drone strikes in the country's northwestern tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

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