UPDATES WITH DETAILS ON MERGER BY PAKISTAN TEHREEK-E-INSAF AND STATEMENT BY PAKISTAN PEOPLE'S PARTY ON GOV'T FORMATION; ADDS 2ND, 3RD DECK; EDITS THROUGHOUT
By Aamir Latif
KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday announced that candidates who won last week's elections will join two religiopolitical parties to form governments in the center and two provinces.
PTI spokesman Rauf Hassan said at a press conference in the capital Islamabad that his party-backed independent candidates will "form a coalition" government with the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen at the federal level and in eastern Punjab province.
Whereas its independent candidates will merge with the mainstream religiopolitical party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Hassan added.
It will also form a coalition government with the mainstream religiopolitical party Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Hassan added.
The PTI candidates run the Feb. 8 elections as independent candidates following the country's top court ruling removing the party symbol from the ballot paper for failing to hold an intra-party election on time.
This left the PTI unable to benefit from a share of 70 seats reserved for women and minorities, which are distributed among parties according to the ratio of seats they won in the elections.
The number of Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen and Jamaat-e-Islami seats in the National Assembly and two provincial assemblies will increase when PTI candidates join the two parties, as will their representation in seats reserved for women and minorities.
No party could win two/thirds majority in the lower house to form government on its own.
The Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen has won only one seat in the National Assembly and after joining 93 PTI-backed independent candidates, it will become the single largest party in the lower house, with a strength of 94.
It will also receive 26 reserved seats, increasing its total strength to 120 in the 336-member house.
However, even with reserved seats, a party needs 169 seats to form a government with a simple majority, which means the PTI still has slim chances of forming the federal government.
In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly, the PTI-backed affiliates already have a dominating position to form the government.
In a related development, the Jamaat-e-Islami has lost three seats in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly after the electoral authorities declared the PTI-backed independent candidates victorious after "recounting."
Following the joining of independent candidates, the PTI will gain more seats in the Senate, where it currently holds a majority. Elections on half of the Senate seats are scheduled later this year, with members of the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies casting their votes.
- Pakistan People’s Party to vote for Sharif
Center-left Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which emerged as the third largest party in the Feb. 8 elections, on Tuesday announced that it will vote for a prime minister candidate nominated by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) of the three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to help form the federal government.
However, it will not join the Cabinet, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said at a press conference after the party’s central executive committee meeting in Islamabad.
With the PPP support, and some other political parties, the PML-N will have the majority in the parliament.
Bilawal said his father, former President Asif Ali Zardari, will be the party's presidential candidate for the second time.
The PPP will field candidates for speaker of the National Assembly and Senate chairman.
“We want bring an end to the ongoing political instability. If we don’t do that (support PML-N) then the country will have to go for a re-election,” he added.
Acknowledging that the decision to support PML-N will inflict a “political loss” on his party, he said, “The country’s interest is higher than the party’s loss.”