Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has revealed that he said “no” to a power-sharing plan that would have seen his party share the prime ministership with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s party as he did not want to hold the top job without success. Speeches are made with the authorization of the people.
The 35-year-old former foreign minister is the prime ministerial face of the PPP. However, in the February 8 elections, his party came third in the National Assembly with 54 seats, behind jailed Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and Nawaz Sharif More than 90 seats were won by independents led by Nawaz, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League. PML-N).
To form a government, a party must win 133 of the 265 contested seats in the 266-member National Assembly.
The PPP and the Muslim League, which formed a post-poll alliance, failed to agree on a power-sharing formula despite multiple meetings of the top leadership.
Addressing a thanksgiving rally in Thatta to celebrate the PPP’s electoral victory in Sindh, Bilawal said: “I was told [by PML-N] Let’s be Prime Minister for three years and then you can be Prime Minister for the remaining two years. “I say no to that.” I said I don’t want to be such a prime minister,” he said. “If I become prime minister, it will be after the people of Pakistan elect me. Without taking names, Bilawal said the party had decided it would move forward with “those demanding votes” and would not seek any sector.
Bilawal also said that his father Asif Ali Zardari will be the PPP’s presidential candidate and insisted that the former president would play his role in defusing political tensions.
“In order to control the spread of the fire in the country, we have decided that Zardari will be our candidate for the presidential election. When he takes office, he will put out this fire and save the center and the provinces.”
The country needs a political party that talks about people’s issues, he said, adding that the brewing economic and political crisis has led to divisions in society.
“What should happen is that politicians and all political parties should consider the people of this country and not just focus on their personal interests,” Bilawal stressed.
He claimed that the PTI-backed candidates were born to defeat the BJP leaders.
He said the BJP has decided to collect election complaints from party workers across the country and raise them at appropriate forums. “If we don’t succeed, we will come to protest with you,” he said.
Bilawal appealed to all political parties to “remain within the system” and work for the progress of the country.
Reacting to Bilawal’s remarks, PML-N leader Ishaq Dar stressed that it would be inappropriate to reveal details about negotiations between parties vying to form the next government.
He insisted that the PPP chairman has disclosed the time-sharing formula, but “this is only one aspect, and there can be more formulas.”
Dar said plans to form a government with the PPP and Muttahida Quami-Pakistan (MQM-P) were “still on track” as he noted they had no choice.
The former Treasury secretary said the bipartisan committee has held four rounds of meetings so far but has yet to finalize anything.
“Nothing will be made public by committee members on either side until the final outcome,” Dahl said.
“I get calls every day asking about progress, but morally I won’t say anything until it’s finalized,” he said.
He said a breakthrough could be achieved at the upcoming fifth round of meetings between the two parties, but he gave no specific details.
“Consultations on various proposals were ongoing until yesterday,” Dar said in a post shared by the PML-N on X, indicating ongoing deliberations between the parties. He further said that while progress had been made, the two sides were yet to finalize key points of agreement.
“We are trying to reach consensus on key issues,” affirmed Dar, stressing the parties’ efforts to reach a joint statement on the composition of the next government at the federal level.
The election has been controversial, with several serious allegations of widespread manipulation of the results.
Imran Khan and his party refused to accept the election results, claiming they had won at least 180 seats in the National Assembly, and called for peaceful protests across the country.
In Balochistan, several political parties completely rejected the election results, launched a campaign of indefinite parking and traffic jams, and disrupted traffic on national highways.
Meanwhile, the PTI on Sunday continued its efforts to form governments in central, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces with the help of its new partner Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).
Two days ago, the party decided to sit in the opposition benches and launch a nationwide campaign against alleged rigging of the February 8 election. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, talks among PTI lawmakers have stalled over demands by the PTI leadership to remove certain leaders, including the party’s former chief minister Pervez Khattak ) and Mahmood Khan.
However, at a press conference on Sunday, PTI leaders vowed to form a government and its prime ministerial candidate Omar Ayub said that 30 million votes were cast in PTI support even without its electoral symbol “bat” candidate.
In a bid to increase its presence in Parliament, PTI decided in principle to partner with Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) in National Assembly and Punjab Assembly to fight for reservation for women and minorities after talks in Islamabad seats.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
