Islamabad:

Pakistan’s two largest political parties are fighting over who will take over as prime minister after last week’s inconclusive election forced them to join forces to gain a majority in parliament dominated by independents backed by Imran Khan.

The row is likely to deepen concerns about the stability of a nuclear-armed nation mired in an economic crisis and battling a surge in violence. On Monday, Pakistan’s benchmark stock index fell 2.1% in its first trading day after the results were released.

In a statement on Sunday evening, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) ) won the most seats after independents, the son of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto said they were committed to “putting national interest and welfare above all else” and “steering Pakistan out of politics” Precarity, Pathways to Prosperity and Resilience”.

A successful alliance between the two parties would reduce the influence of candidates supported by Khan. Khan, a former prime minister who clashed with the influential military and is now in jail for corruption, won 93 of 264 seats in the election. .

Analysts said some candidates who had been part of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party may join either party or form an alliance with a smaller party to block either candidate. More former PTI members who did not win seats are also challenging the results in court, which could further disrupt alliance talks.

PTI declined to comment on the candidates’ plans.

However, PML-N and PPP officials said talks over which leader will take the top job have stalled.

“Both sides are interested in forming a coalition but there has been no breakthrough so far. Both sides want to be prime minister,” a senior Muslim League-Sharif leader close to Sharif told Reuters.

The PML-N has not yet nominated a candidate for prime minister, but officials have said it will choose between 74-year-old Nawaz Sharif, who served as prime minister three times, and his 72-year-old brother Shehbaz, who served as prime minister for 18 months. The selection was made until last August.

The PPP has been eyeing Bhutto Zardari as its political heir, and if successful, the 35-year-old former foreign minister would become Pakistan’s youngest prime minister since his mother Benazir came to power.

“Our party wants Bilawal to be the prime minister,” PPP leader Faisal Karim Kundi told Geo TV, adding that independents were joining his party. “No one can form a government without us.”

To become prime minister, a candidate must prove he has a simple majority of 169 seats in the 336-member National Assembly when it meets in the coming weeks.

Some political parties and candidates called for protests against the results, claiming they were rigged. PiS supporters blocked traffic in the northern city of Peshawar, but the party had threatened to hold mass protests if results were not announced on Sunday, but the protest was called off.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)