Shehbaz Sharif likely to become next Pakistan PM as coalition set to cross simple majority mark

Islamabad, Feb 14: Shehbaz Sharif is expected to become Pakistan's new prime minister as the coalition of leading political parties led by him is set to comfortably cross the simple majority mark to form the next government, ending speculation about the future of the administration after elections produced a split mandate.

Shehbaz Sharif along with Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan Peoples Party, Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui of Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan (MQM-P) met at the residence of Shujaat Hussain of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) for a consultative meeting and Tuesday night and agreed on government formation.

Today we have united to tell the nation that we all accept the split mandate. I am thankful to Zardari and Bilawal (Bhutto) that they decided for their party to vote for the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), he said and thanked the other gathered leaders as well.

PML-N Information Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb has said that party supremo Nawaz Sharif has nominated the party president and his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif, 72, for the post of the country's prime minister.

She added that PML-N Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz was nominated for the post of Punjab's chief minister.

"Nawaz Sharif has thanked the political parties which provided support to the PMLN (in forming the upcoming government) and expressed hope that through such decisions Pakistan will come out of crises," she said.

Shehbaz, 72, who was prime minister after the Imran Khan-led government was ousted in April 2022, said the other parties that joined hands with the PML-N enjoyed almost 2/3 majority of the Parliament after the elections. He also said that the new government would pull the country out of trouble.

According to the Election Commission of Pakistan's tally, the total number of general seats won by the six parties -- the PML-N, PPP, MQM-P, PML-Q, IPP (Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party) and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) which announced their plans to form a coalition led by Shehbaz -- comes to 152.

This clearly shows that these parties will easily achieve the minimum required number of 169 to form the government at the Centre after the addition of 60 women and 10 minority seats in their tally.

However, it is yet to be seen if these parties will be able to get to the next magic number of 224, which is required to obtain the elusive two-thirds majority in a 336-member National Assembly.

Now our war is against the country's challenges. The first challenge is the economy. We have to stabilise it which is a tall task. Nations move forward when their leadership unites and decides to end conflicts and take the nation forward to eliminate problems, he said.