Pakistan: Bilawal Bhutto withdraws from PM race, to support Nawaz Sharif's party

Pakistan Peoples Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday withdrew from the race for the prime minister, saying that his party would support Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s candidate for the premier’s slot without being part of the government.

This decision by Bilawal came shortly after Pakistan’s former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed that PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif would become prime minister for a record fourth time.

Bilawal told media after the meeting of Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) high-powered Central Executive Committee (CEC), held under his leadership that his party failed to get a mandate to form a government in the federation.

“Due to this, I will not be putting myself forward for the candidacy of the prime minister of Pakistan,” he said, adding that the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf had refused to form a coalition with the PPP which left the PML-N as the only party that had invited the PPP to join the government.

Revealing the reason behind backing the rival party’s candidate for the coveted post, Bilawal said that the PPP decided to support the PML-N’s candidate for the premiership to ensure political instability in the country, according to a report by The News International website.

Bilawal said that the PPP decided to form a committee to engage with other political parties for the formation of government and political stability.

“The PPP has decided that we are unable or not in a position to join the federal government ourselves, nor are we interested in taking ministries in such a setup. We also don’t want to see political chaos in the country. We don’t want to perpetuate the crisis in the country,” he said.

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“PPP has decided that we ran this election on a manifesto based on issues of public importance […] we want to restore political stability and want to end this environment of political toxicity.

He said that the PPP would help to form a stable government without being part of it.

“To that end, the PPP will be willing to support the case of important votes - a candidate of the PM of Pakistan - and issue to issue basis to ensure that the government is formed and political stability is restored,” Bilawal said.

Replying to a question, he said that his father and former president Asif Ali Zardari would be the candidate to become president as he was capable of getting the country out of the current problems.

To another question, he said that his experience with the PML-N in the previous government was not good and his party leaders in the meeting raised concerns that their issues were not addressed by the PML-N during the tenure of the coalition government.

Ruling out fresh elections due to the split mandate, he also declared that the parliament would be formed after the current elections and “we will not let the people down”.

Pakistani voters gave a fractured mandate in the results of the February 8 polls.

Independent candidates, mostly backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s PTI party, won 101 seats in the 266-member National Assembly, followed by former three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 75 seats, and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) with 54 seats.

With inputs from PTI.