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Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif has said that if independent candidates backed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) can form a government in the Centre, they must form it, and we will sit in the opposition.
“If PTI-sponsored candidates can show a majority in the National Assembly then they should form a government,” he said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Tuesday.
The PML-N president said his party is ready to sit in opposition if PTI-backed candidates established their majority in the lower house of parliament.
“We will accept them happily if they fail to do so then we will use our Constitutional and legal right,” the PML-N president said.
He said the PML-N has a majority in Punjab and his party is the largest in Centre in terms of party. “We now have 80 members after independents joined our party,” he said adding that more independent lawmakers will join the PML-N.
Despite PML-N failing to secure a majority in the elections, Shehbaz said supremo Nawaz Sharif is still the party’s candidate for the post of prime minister.
“I am still standing by my words that Nawaz Sharif will become the prime minister for the fourth time,” he added.
The PML-N president said his party will invite everyone to form a coalition government in the Centre.
He said that millions of Pakistanis made their voices heard by voting in the polls on February 8, with record numbers of Pakistani women, members of religious and ethnic minority groups, and youth registered.
Elections were held for 265 seats in the national assembly and a political party needs 134 seats for a simple majority.
Independent candidates have secured 92 National Assembly seats, followed by the PML-N (75), and the PPP (54), according to the provisional results issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan.
On Monday, PTI’s Latif Khosa clarified that his party would not form a coalition government given the experience.
At the press conference, Shehbaz said that the PML-N has emerged as the single largest party in the election.
The Constitution was clear about the formation of the government, he said and added that the party securing a majority of the seats to form the government
He reminded the reporters in the hall of the 2018 elections when results were issued more than 66 hours after the polls. Shehbaz wondered about any elections which were not allegedly rigged.
The PML-N president praised the ECP for holding elections.