With the Supreme Court of Pakistan disqualifying Nawaz Sharif from holding public office for life, the ancestral village of Pakistan’s ousted Prime Minister (PM), ‘Jati Umra’, in Punjab is in the state of shock over the turn of events in the neighbouring country.

But residents of this village in Tarn Taran district are finding solace in the fact that Sharif has named his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif – current chief minister of Punjab province – as a successor to the country's top office.

They say the PM's post will thus remain with the Sharif family, which migrated from Jati Umra to Pakistan before the partition of India in August 1947.

"We are shocked to hear the news (about Sharif's ouster). Though we want Sharif to return as PM, it's soothing for us that the PM's post is going to Shahbaz, who is from the same family," sarpanch (village head) of Jati Umra, Dilbagh Singh (40), told The Statesman over the phone.

He said the village has gained much from its association with the Sharifs. "When Shahbaz visited the village in 2013, the state government gave Rs 2.53 Crore for the village which has been used for making a stadium, water tank, streets, roads, community hall, gym and much more," Singh said adding that the village has better facilities that other villages only because of the Sharif family.

A granthi (ceremonial reader of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib) with the village gurdwara, Inderjeet Singh said whenever residents of Jati Umra go to Pakistan for pilgrimage, the Sharif family takes care of all their local travel and other arrangements. "They also give them gifts when coming back to India," he told The Statesman over the phone.

The village sarpanch said village residents keep watching TV news regarding the happenings in Pakistan. "We pray for the good of the Sharif family because whatever our village has is because of them," Singh said.

Sharif family named their palatial estate at Raiwind near Lahore after their ancestral village in India. Now, Jati Umrah has developed into a small town in the Punjab province of Pakistan.

Jati Umra is the birthplace of Sharif's father, Muhammad Sharif. The family's residence has now been turned into a gurdwara as per the wish of the Sharif family. The wooden door frame of same house was presented to Sharif family by Sikh caretakers in the 90s and was fixed at their residence Jati Umra. The grave of Sharif's great grandfather is in Jati Umra.