On Monday, Pakistan's parliament elected a more pro-Western leader, Shehbaz Sharif, as prime minister, bringing an end to a political crisis that spurred public protests and the mass resignation of MPs.

Sharif's election ends a week-long constitutional crisis on Sunday with Khan's defeat in a no-confidence vote. However, the nuclear-armed nation is likely to remain prone to political and economic instability.

Sharif, 70, is the younger brother of three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. He is more known in Pakistan as an accomplished administrator than a politician.

According to analysts, unlike Nawaz, Shehbaz enjoys favorable relations with Pakistan's military, which usually dominates the country's foreign and defense policies.

Sharif promised following the vote to address the country's economic woes, which has seen the rupee fall to an all-time low and the central bank boost rates by the highest amount in decades last week.

"If we are to save the sinking boat, we will all need to work hard and unite, unite, unite," he declared in his inaugural statement to parliament.

"Today, we are embarking on a new era of development."

Just minutes before the vote, members of Khan's party resigned en masse from the lower house of parliament in protest of his political adversaries' projected formation of a government.

"We are all resigning," Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Khan's former foreign minister and party vice president told the assembly. Due to the widespread resignations, new by-elections will be held in well over 100 seats.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had submitted nomination papers for Qureshi as its prime ministerial candidate.

'Insult'

The younger Sharif emerged as the leader of a united opposition determined to depose Khan, a former cricket star who has alleged that the US was responsible for his demise, an allegation disputed by Washington.

In an interview last week, Sharif stated that good connections with the US were vital for Pakistan, for better or worse, in striking contrast to Khan's fractious relationship with Washington.

Nawaz Sharif was disqualified from public office by the Supreme Court in 2017 and then traveled abroad for medical treatment after serving only a few months of a ten-year prison sentence for corruption charges.

"There can be no greater insult to this country than Sharif being elected," Khan, who the same parliament expelled in the early hours of Sunday, told reporters on Monday.

Since the nuclear-armed nation gained independence from colonial power Great Britain in 1947, no elected prime leader has served a full term, albeit Khan is the first to be deposed by a no-confidence vote.

For roughly half of the country's nearly 75-year history, the military has dominated. When Khan was elected in 2018, it viewed him and his conservative program favorably.

However, that backing dwindled following a spat over the selection of a military intelligence director and economic woes that resulted in the highest interest rate hike in decades last week.

Khan maintained his defiance in the aftermath of his defeat in parliament.

Thousands of his fans demonstrated against his ouster in many places till the early hours of Monday.