Pakistan election: PTI joins religious parties, PPP backs rival PMLN
Al Jazeera
Two leading parties announce separate coalition plans to help secure a majority needed after Pakistan’s contested polls.
Islamabad, Pakistan – Five days after Pakistan’s general election, two opposing parties, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), have both announced plans to form a government – with the PTI allying with religious parties and the PPP supporting the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN).
The PTI leadership on Tuesday announced that its independent candidates would try to form a federal government and one in Punjab province by joining a coalition with the minority party Majlis-e-Wahdat-Muslimeen (MWM).
The party also said its candidates in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province would ally with another religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), to form a government.
Thursday’s elections delivered a split mandate with no party securing a majority in the National Assembly. Independent candidates affiliated with jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI won the most seats. But to form a government, they still need to be part of a political party or a coalition.
In announcing the coalition plan on Tuesday, PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan said he had been mandated by Khan to approach all political parties other than the “PPP, PMLN and MQM”, or Muttahida Qaumi Movement.
