Pakistan’s major parties in the Senate, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), have finally reached an agreement to form a coalition government after the recent general election, the media reported on Wednesday.
The general election took place in Pakistan on February 8. Voters elected 266 candidates to the lower house of the Pakistani parliament, who are due to elect a new prime minister and representatives to provincial assemblies that will elect provincial heads.
PML-N’s president, Shehbaz Sharif, the three-time former prime minister, will be nominated for another term after the two parties’ coordination committees reached an agreement on Tuesday, Pakistani broadcaster Geo News reported. Meanwhile, the PPP’s co-chair and former president, Asif Ali Zardari, will run for another presidential term too.
However, according to the power-sharing formula, the PPP will not become part of Shehbaz Sharif’s cabinet but can count on getting top constitutional offices, including the presidency, the broadcaster reported, citing sources.
In particular, the PPP will get the presidency, the senate’s chairman position, the Balochistan chief minister, and the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, among other things, while the PML-N will get the prime minister’s office, the speaker of the National Assembly, and the right to nominate governors for Sindh and Balochistan provinces.
The announcement of the new appointments followed around two weeks of uncertainty as the country remained without new leadership amid economic hurdles, natural disasters earlier in 2023, and high inflation.
