In the absence of an absolute majority for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Nawaz Sharif is not too keen on becoming the country’s prime minister for a fourth term, sources close to the PML-N told News18 on Saturday, suggesting the possibility of his brother Shehbaz Sharif taking on the mantle again.
Votes are still being counted in Pakistan after Thursday’s general election which was marred by allegations of rigging, sporadic violence and a countrywide mobile phone shutdown. There were dozens of parties in the fray but the main contest was among Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), whose candidates ran as independents, former three-time premier Sharif’s PML-N and Bilawal Zardari Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
Independent candidates backed by an imprisoned Khan, who was disqualified from running in Thursday’s election because of criminal convictions, were leading in the vote count on Friday, a surprisingly strong showing given assertions by Khan’s supporters and a national rights body that the balloting was manipulated to favour Nawaz Sharif.
With the anti-climactic results triggering hectic negotiations, sources said Bilawal’s father and senior PPP leader Asif Ali Zardari wants the country’s presidency for himself in exchange for supporting a government under Shehbaz Sharif. Asif Ali Zardari, husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, was the president of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013.
Nawaz Sharif, meanwhile, is said to want the post of Punjab chief minister for his daughter Maryam Nawaz.
“The establishment is also not comfortable with the idea of a Nawaz-led government due to his anti-army stand. The army feels Shehbaz Sharif will be a great chief executive for the government to deliver on expected lines,” a source said.
Asif Ali Zardari and Shehbaz Sharif likely to meet in Lahore on Saturday night for negotiations.
According to the latest Election Commission data, results of 226 constituencies out of 265 were declared. Independent candidates (mostly supported by PTI) bagged 92 seats while PML-N got 64, Pakistan Peoples Party secured 50, Muttahida Qaumi Movement won 12 and other parties got eight seats. To form a government, a party must win 133 seats out of 265 in the National Assembly. Election to one seat was postponed after the death of a candidate.
Overall, 169 seats are needed to secure a simple majority out of its total 336 seats, which include the reserved slots for women and minorities.
On Friday, Nawaz Sharif called for a unity government and said his party respects the mandate of all parties, including the independent candidates backed by Imran Khan’s PTI.
Changing his stance of not forging any alliance with any party, Nawaz Sharif said there is a need for all political parties to sit together and form a government to pull Pakistan out of its difficulties.
Sharif also announced that he has tasked his younger brother and party president Shehbaz Sharif to reach out to the Pakistan Peoples’ Party’s Asif Ali Zardari, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) chief Fazlur Rehman and Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui for the formation of a coalition government.
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