New Delhi: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has nominated Shehbaz Sharif, its president and the younger brother of former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, as its prime ministerial candidate in a surprising turn of events in Pakistan Tuesday. Nawaz’s daughter Maryam Nawaz Sharif has been nominated as the party’s chief ministerial candidate for the state of Punjab.
The younger Sharif was nominated by Nawaz, the PML-N chief who was the favoured candidate of Pakistan’s powerful military in the country’s general election held on 8 February. Nawaz has been the face of the PML-N throughout its campaigns and even made a victory speech on 9 February on behalf of the party.
Shehbaz, who previously served as prime minister from April 2022 to August 2023, was announced as the PML-N’s candidate by Marriyum Aurangzeb, the party’s secretary of information, on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
“Mr. Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League -N, has nominated Mr. Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif for the post of Prime Minister of Pakistan, while Ms Nawaz Sharif has been nominated for the post of Chief Minister Punjab,” Aurangzeb’s post on X said.
Six parties — PML-N, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) and the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) — have agreed to form a coalition government at the federal level in Pakistan.
Significantly, candidates backed by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had emerged on top in this month’s election with 93 seats. However, it was the PML-N that was the single largest party with 75 seats, with former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto’s PPP having the third highest seats with 54 seats.
Together the coalition parties who have agreed to make a coalition have 152 seats in the 336-member National Assembly. To form a government, a party or coalition requires 169 seats.
While 266 seats of the NA are directly elected, 70 are proportionally allocated for women and religious minorities. With the addition of those seats, the six parties should have a comfortable majority in the 336-member house.
The announcement of the coalition government was made by PPP co-chairman and former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari.
Meanwhile, Zardari has invited Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and its chief, former prime minister Imran Khan, to become part of the “reconciliation process” in Pakistan.
The PTI faced a state-sanctioned crackdown in the runup to the elections and even lost its election symbol — the famous “cricket bat” — in December. Its leaders Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi were convicted and jailed mere weeks before the polls.
As a result, the party had to register its candidates as independents. Even though its candidates won the most number of seats in the election, it does not have enough for a simple majority in Parliament.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
Also Read: Pakistan Army’s problems are far from over. Imran Khan is both a force and a headache