Xinhua News Agency, Islamabad, February 21 (Reporter Jiang Chao) After multiple rounds of negotiations over the past few days, Pakistan's main political parties, the Muslim League (Sharif faction) and the People's Party, announced in the capital Islamabad late at night on the 20th that the two parties had reached an agreement and agreed to form a coalition government.Shahbaz Sharif, chairman of the Muslim League (Sharif faction) and former prime minister, and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of the PPP and former foreign minister, held a joint press conference that night.Shahbaz said that both parties unanimously agreed to elect Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the People's Party and former president, to run for the new president.At the same time, the United National Movement Party, the Muslim League (Leadership), and the Pakistan Stability Party have also agreed to participate in the formation of a coalition government.Bilawal said that the two parties decided to form a coalition government to get the country out of the current crisis, and the People's Party agreed to nominate Shahbaz to run for the new prime minister.On February 11, the Election Commission of Pakistan announced the final vote count results of the new National Assembly (lower house of parliament) election held on the 8th. The top four vote-getters were: the independent candidate group won 101 seats; the Muslim League ( Sharif faction) won 75 seats; the People's Party won 54 seats; and the United National Movement Party won 17 seats.According to the results, no political party or group of independent candidates alone obtained more than half of the seats in the current National Assembly election. Therefore, the main political parties in Pakistan need to negotiate to form a coalition government.
On January 13 this year, the Supreme Court of Pakistan passed a ruling depriving the Tehreek-e-Insaf party founded by former Prime Minister Imran Khan of its electoral symbol.Therefore, the party's candidates are only allowed to participate in the current National Assembly elections as independent candidates.According to local media statistics, about 90 independent candidates who won seats in this National Assembly election are from the Justice Movement Party.On February 19, the current leader of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Guhar Ali Khan, announced that the independent candidates from the party who won seats in the current National Assembly election will collectively join a group called the "Sunni Unity Council" The Sunni Solidarity Council seeks to participate as a political party in the proportional allocation of reserved seats in parliament.The National Assembly of Pakistan currently has 336 seats. Members are elected for a term of five years and can be re-elected.Among them, 266 seats are elected by popular suffrage, and the person who receives the most votes in each constituency is elected.In addition, the National Assembly also establishes 60 reserved seats for women and 10 reserved seats for religious minorities (non-Muslims). These seats are allocated proportionally to the number of popular seats obtained by each party.
