Thelocalreport.in

Islamabad:

Lawmakers were sworn in on Thursday in the first session of Pakistan’s new parliament, three weeks after elections were marred by widespread allegations of fraud.

Former Prime Minister Imran Khan is jailed and barred from running in Pakistan’s February 8 polls, and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has been targeted in a campaign of arrests and censorship.

Khan’s followers defied the crackdown to win more seats than any other party, but the military-backed Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is set to join a coalition government to oust them from power.

Under the coalition deal, former Prime Minister Sherbaz Sharif, who ousted Khan in a no-confidence vote in 2022, will be re-elected as prime minister by new lawmakers in the coming days.

Lawmakers began arriving at the 336-seat National Assembly in Islamabad on Thursday morning and were unanimously sworn in at around 11:30 am (0630 GMT).

PTI members were forced to contest the election as independents, but some members came to parliament with portraits of Khan, which they waved in a show of provocation when Sharif and other Muslim League-North leaders entered the chamber.

“In a democracy, Parliament is a sacred place,” PTI Acting Chairman Gohar Ali Khan told reporters upon arrival to be sworn in.

“Those who have no public trust and no mandate should not be sitting here.”

Gohar held up a poster reading “Free Imran Khan” as he signed the roll of lawmakers, but the moment was omitted from the state television broadcast as cameras cut away.

The Sharif family’s Muslim League (Sharif faction) agreed to govern alongside former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and several smaller factions.

In return, the PPP was promised the presidency of their patriarch, Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto’s widower.

Cabinet positions have not yet been announced.

Analysts see the broad coalition as a shaky enterprise facing an economic and security crisis plaguing the country of more than 240 million people.

The ombudsman also warned that the Muslim League-North alliance could be seen as lacking legitimacy due to skepticism among some members of the public about whether their votes were counted.

Although the PTI-aligned candidate exceeded expectations, Imran Khan claimed the election was blatantly rigged to prevent the party from returning to power in a landslide.

Islamabad cut mobile internet signals across the country on election day, citing security reasons but declined to give details. Results were also delayed, prompting further accusations of fraud.

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