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Islamabad/Lahore: Efforts to form a coalition government intensified on Monday after Pakistan received a fractured mandate in the parliamentary elections. Under this, the top leaders of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) discussed the new power sharing formula to divide the five-year term. Despite independent candidates supported by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) winning the most seats in Parliament, questions remain about the picture of Pakistan’s next government.
None of the three major parties, PML-N, PPP and PTI, have got the required number of seats to gain majority in the 266-member National Assembly and hence will not be able to form the government on their own. Therefore, it is not yet clear who will be the next Prime Minister of the country which is facing cash crunch.
As part of their efforts to form a coalition government at the Center and the provinces, leaders of the PML-N and the PPP in their first meeting after the February 8 elections agreed to a .
Sources said, “It has been proposed that a PML-N candidate will remain the Prime Minister for three years and the PPP leader will hold the post for two years.” He said that it has not been decided yet who will get the first term. . PPP Parliamentary Speaker Asif Ali Zardari, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif from PML-N attended the meeting. PML-N and National Party had adopted the same formula of power sharing in Balochistan in 2013.
Despite PML-N not securing a simple majority in the general elections held on February 8 in Pakistan, its president Nawaz Sharif is still in the race for the post of Prime Minister. Some PML-N leaders said this on Monday.
PML-N senator Irfan Siddiq told a private news channel, “We are in talks with the PPP on the power-sharing formula to form the next coalition government at the Center and Nawaz Sharif (74) is the prime ministerial candidate. )’s name cannot be ruled out.
Sources said that in the meeting held on Sunday at Bilawal’s residence in Lahore, both sides agreed on the principle of cooperation for the political stability of the country after the general elections.
A PPP leader said that the party is not backing down from the demand that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari should be made the Prime Minister.
The Election Commission of Pakistan on Sunday declared the final results of the general elections, in which independent candidates supported by the party of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan have won 101 seats.
At the same time, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has technically emerged as the largest party in the Parliament by winning 75 seats.
Bilawal Zardari Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) got 54 seats, while the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P), the group of Urdu-speaking people who came from India during partition, got 17 seats. Other small parties won the remaining 12 seats.
PTI had initially claimed to form the government, but its chances later started weakening.
To form the government, a party will need the support of 133 members elected through direct voting. Overall, 169 seats out of 336 are required to achieve a simple majority, which also includes seats reserved for women and minorities.
Nawaz Sharif on Saturday had called for forming a coalition government to take Pakistan out of the current difficulties. It is believed that Sharif has the support of the country’s powerful army.
Meanwhile, another newly elected independent MP of Pakistan’s National Assembly on Monday decided to join former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s party PML-N.
A day before this, an independent MP supported by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party had joined the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). A total of two independent MPs have joined PML-N.
PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif wrote on ‘X’ on Monday that Sardar Shamshir Mazari, MP from NA-189 seat, Imran Akram elected from PP-195, Sohail Khan elected from PP-240, Khizr Hussain Mazari, MP from PP-297. And Sahibzada Mohammad Ghazin Abbasi, member of the National Assembly from PP-249, met Nawaz Sharif.
