The Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) led by former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif has pitched the idea of a “participatory coalition government” to rival parties to end the logjam following the split verdict in the February 8 election, according to media reports.
PML-N has 75 seats in the 266-member National Assembly, the single largest party. Independent members, mostly backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, have secured 101 seats.
Former law minister Azam Nazeer Tarar termed this scenario ‘Hobson’s choice’ and said not a single political party had secured a majority in the National Assembly, insisting that elections were “fair”.
The senior PML-N leader was talking to the media after a meeting of the party’s top brass at Jati Umra in Lahore during which consultations were held regarding the future course of action. The ex-minister said the PML-N had started consultations with its former allies to form a unity government in the Centre.
“There’s only the possibility of forming the (federal) government with the backing of the PML-N. It will be a participatory coalition government,” he said, adding that it was in “the largest interest of the country that all should join hands” to form the federal government, the Dawn newspaper reported.
