Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz form a coalition with Shehbaz Sharif selected as the prime ministerial candidate.
Pakistan's two main political parties have announced they have reached a formal agreement to form a coalition government, days after failing to win a clear majority in an inconclusive national election.
The Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) now have “the necessary numbers” to form a government, PMLN leader and former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday.
Former foreign minister and PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari sat next to Sharif at a press conference in Islamabad and confirmed that Sharif would be the coalition's candidate for prime minister.
He added that his father Asif Ali Zardari would be the alliance's presidential candidate.
Sharif, also the younger brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said the PMLN-PPP coalition has support from other smaller parties as well.
The announcement came after 10 days of intense negotiations following the February 8 election. As a result, no party was able to secure the 134 seats needed to win a simple majority and form a government on its own, and the Diet became dysfunctional.
Independent candidates aligned with another major party (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), led by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan) won the most seats at 93, but they also lacked the numbers to govern. It had no political party or coalition.
Candidates aligned with the PTI were forced to run as independents in the face of state restrictions on the party.
PMLN is the largest party with 79 seats and PPP is second with 54 seats. The PMLN, along with her four other minor parties, has a comfortable majority in parliament with 264 seats.
fraudulent voting
Following the two parties' announcements, the PTI, which was also seeking a coalition with smaller parties, accused its rival of being a “mission thief” in a post on social media platform X.
PDM 2.0= #mission thief pic.twitter.com/9ukk4oJZvF
— PTI (@PTIofficial) February 20, 2024
PTI claims there was widespread voter fraud in the election, a claim that appeared to be borne out on Saturday when a senior official admitted to being involved in changing the election results.
The PTI faced severe repression by government agencies and security forces in the weeks leading up to the election.
In January, the party was even denied the use of its electoral symbol, the cricket bat, resulting in candidates running as independents rather than as members.
Meanwhile, social media platform X has been in turmoil across Pakistan since revelations of vote manipulation were made public on Saturday and people took to the streets to protest.
“X is no longer accessible in Pakistan.” [since Saturday] Because it is being used by the public to protest,” digital rights activist Osama Khilji told Agence France-Presse. However, the Pakistani government has not acknowledged the power outage.
Delays in forming a government have raised concerns as nuclear-armed Pakistan, a nation of 241 million people, faces an economic crisis amid slow growth, record inflation and escalating violence by armed groups. . We need a stable government with the power to make tough decisions.
Bhutto Zardari said on Tuesday that the PPP and PMLN will push for the formation of a government as soon as possible.
According to the country's constitution, parliament is to convene by February 29, after which a vote will be held to elect a new prime minister.
