Pakistan’s leading parties, minus jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, on Tuesday announced that they will try to form a coalition government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, ending speculation about the future form of the political set-up.

Though it was not explicitly announced who would be the Prime Minister, PML-N president Shehbaz Sharif said he would request his elder brother and the 74-year-old party supremo Nawaz Sharif to become the Premier for a record fourth time.

However, Shehbaz, 72, would likely lead a government like the one he headed after Imran Khan was voted out of power in April 2022.

Shehbaz along with Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui of Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) met at the residence of Shujaat Hussain of Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) after a consultative meeting.

“Today we have united to tell the nation that we all accept the split mandate. I am thankful to Zardari and Bilawal that they decided for their party to vote for the PML-N,” he said and thanked the other gathered leaders as well.

To form a government, a party must win 133 seats out of 265 contested seats in the 266-member National Assembly. The Election Commission of Pakistan announced that independent candidates, a majority of them supported by the PTI, secured 101 seats, followed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 75 seats, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) getting 54 seats and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) bagging 17 seats.

Other parties got 17 seats while the result of one constituency was withheld.

Shehbaz said the new government would pull the cash-strapped country out of trouble.

“Now our war is against the country’s challenges. The first challenge is the economy. We have to stabilise it. Nations move forward when their leadership unites and decides to end conflicts and take the nation forward to eliminate problems,” he said.

Shehbaz also announced that his niece Maryam Nawaz would be the party candidate for the chief minister of Punjab, sparking rumours about the future of the provincial government. Earlier, Zardari said at the same press conference that a coalition government would be set up.

“We have decided to form a coalition government and pull the country out of the economic crisis,” he said and added that the new government would also try to reconcile with everyone, including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

Misadventure: Khan

Khan on Tuesday warned his rivals against the “misadventure” of forming a government with “stolen votes”. In a veiled reference to Opposition parties’ bid to snatch away his party’s victory in the February 8 polls, Khan also said, “PTI will never compromise.”