Pakistan’s Ex-PM Seeks Coalition
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
ISLAMABAD (Worthy News) – Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif says he will try to form a coalition government after his party trailed independent candidates backed by his imprisoned rival, Imran Khan, in parliamentary election results on Friday.
Sharif told supporters he was sending his younger brother and former premier, Shehbaz Sharif, to meet the leaders of other parties.
He wants to invite them to join a coalition to rule the large Islamic nation.
The results showed independents, backed mainly by Khan, had won the most seats – 98 of the 245 counted.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) won 69, while the Pakistan People’s Party of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the son of assassinated premier Benazir Bhutto, got 51.
Small parties and other independents won the rest, officials said.
“Pakistan Muslim League is the single-largest party in the country today after the elections, and it is our duty to bring this country out of the whirlpool,” Sharif told a crowd of supporters outside his home in the eastern city of Lahore.
The outcome showed the popularity of the jailed Imran Khan. Yet the army was widely thought to have thrown its weight behind his rival, Nawaz Sharif.
However, the results bucked predictions that Sharif would quickly gain power.
The results also rebuke a military establishment accused of engineering the vote against Khan.
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