Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N party Nominates His brother Shehbaz Sharif as Pakistan PM
It was on Tuesday that Pakistan’s political uncertainty finally took a dramatic turn, with the nomination of Shehbaz Sharif as its top candidate and formation of a new coalition government. The national elections held last week did not result in a single party winning the most votes, leading to days of political gridlock and wrangling.
A majority government was formed after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) led by Nawaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari merged, despite each party losing seats individually. After Nawaz Sharif, his younger brother Shehbazi was nominated for the position of Prime Minister.
On Tuesday, Mr Bhutto Zardari stated that his party would vote for the PML-N’s candidate and the new government, but would not become a member of the cabinet.
After the preliminary election results showed that candidates affiliated with imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan, who acted as independents, had won the most seats, PML-N initiated talks with the PPP over the weekend to form a coalition.
The recent string of convictions has disqualified Khan, a national cricket icon, from participating in the election, and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), was effectively banned from running for office after the election commission declared that it could not field candidates with its election symbol, a cricket bat.
The PML-N, which was the favourite party before the vote, emerged as the largest party with 75 seats, followed by the PPP with 54 seats, while candidates supported by Khan won 93 seats.
With 169 seats in the National Assembly, Pakistan’s system ensures that a simple majority can be attained. The total number of seats is 336, with only 266 being directly contested in elections and the remaining 70 being reserved, including 60 for women and 10 for religious minorities.
In the recently concluded election, Independent candidates backed by jailed former premier Imran Khan emerged as the frontrunners, winning 92 seats. The fact that they are running as individuals and not a party means that they cannot form a government alone. As a result, they have rejected the possibility of forming alliances with PML-N and PPP.
As many as 44 political parties ran for their own candidate among 265 seats in the National Assembly for the 2019 elections, scheduled to be held on February 8, 2024. It had been the 12th general election in this country since it gained independence 76 years ago.
Shehbaz will head a coalition government consisting of junior parties that excludes independents supported by Imran Khan, who does not want to form an alliance with his opponents. However, Shehbaz Sharif’s coalition will still have a comfortable lead in the coalition.
The government, which has questionable legitimacy and is reliant on the military, will be largely dependent on it, according to Zahid Hussain, an author and columnist in the liberal daily Dawn.
A coalition with the Pakistan Peoples Party, which was once led by Benazir Bhutto, has been announced for Sharif’s political party. After a meeting between Sharif’s brother and Bhutto’s widow, Asif Ali Zardari, the PPP’s president, representatives of both parties announced the news on Tuesday night.
Due to MWM, a Shiite party led by Allama Raja Nasir Abbas, being awarded just one seat in the National Assembly but not any seat in the four provinces, PTI’s choice of two parties could potentially spark scrutiny from his opponents.
On the other hand, the JI is one of the oldest hardline religious organizations that backed the Kashmir conflict and opposed the US troops in Afghanistan through demonstrations and rallies. According to the ECP’s statistics, it won six provincial seats in total, with three in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, two in Sindh, and one in Balochistan, despite not having a seat in the National Assembly.
However, overnight developments demonstrated that the country was soon to have an elected government within weeks of its polarised elections on February 8.
