Pakistan: Rival parties plan alliance to keep Imran Khan's allies out of power

Even after Imran Khan’s candidates secured the most seats in the divisive election, Pakistan’s two main family-controlled political parties are getting closer to creating a coalition government that would frustrate the former cricket star’s group. Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shehbaz Sharif released a statement on X yesterday night stating that the parties of the Sharif and Bhutto clans “agreed in principle to save the country from political instability.” In the event if Khan’s supporters, who were running as independents, upset the status quo and demonstrated the electorate’s persistent support for Khan, it would represent a reversal of positions by Pakistan’s establishment. More demonstrations and turmoil around the nation could result from it as well. After the election produced yet another hung parliament, the Pakistan Peoples Party led by Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and the PML-N led by the Sharifs met throughout the course of the last two days in an attempt to build a coalition. The PML-N’s proposal would be taken into consideration by Bhutto Zardari’s party during a leadership meeting on Monday. The PPP said in a statement that Sharif “sought the help” of Bhutto Zardari, the son of deceased former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, to form a government. The proposal’s specifics were kept a secret by both parties, who instead posted videos of the two families’ members hugging and conversing inside the large Bhutto Zardari home in Lahore. After an already controversial election in which Khan’s candidates, compelled to run as independents, shocked observers by gaining the most seats but falling short of a majority, a cooperation between the two political factions might exacerbate tensions. Any hold-ups in the formation of a government would be detrimental to an already fragile economy. With the fastest-paced inflation rate in Asia at 28% and the most recent IMF bailout package about to expire in March, it appears that the incoming leader will need to negotiate a new agreement. PTI, the political organization led by Imran Khan, is to launch lawsuits against the Election Commission in an effort to compel recounts in many National Assembly seats that it lost. Party members have brought attention to election cheating by staging small-scale demonstrations throughout Pakistani cities and closing a Peshawar expressway. For the most of Pakistan’s brief history, the army has either directly or covertly dominated the nation; nevertheless, it recently declared that it will no longer be active in politics. The military has always refuted Khan’s accusations that the generals planned with other political parties to remove him from office in April 2022 and were in charge of the campaign of persecution against him and his entourage. At least ninety-five of the 265 National Assembly seats that were up for grabs were won by supporters of Khan. However, one Khan-backed candidate who emerged victorious in the Sharif stronghold of Lahore has already joined the PML-N, and it’s feasible that additional candidates will do the same. Gohar Khan, the chairman of the PTI, said on the regional TV network Geo Television that the other independent contenders “are in touch with us and will stay with us only.” He also disapproved of forming a coalition with the PPP or the PML-N. He stated on a Dawn News program that “it is better to sit in the opposition than to form a government with them.”