Islamabad (August 16, 2018): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz has decided to bring its opposition leader in Senate after Pakistan Peoples Party reportedly withdrew its support for Shehbaz Sharif for the post of prime minister. Pakistan Peoples Party has decided to attend the Friday’s session but not to vote for any candidate, while JI has also decided to remain silent.
According to the details, the National Assembly will elect the country’s 22nd prime minister on Friday. The two candidates Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif are in the run, whose nomination papers were accepted earlier.
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Nomination papers on their behalf were submitted by their party leaders in the National Assembly secretariat on Wednesday.
Election for the office will be held tomorrow, for which the session of the National Assembly has already been summoned at 3.30 in the afternoon.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), while taking U-turn, has decided not to support Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) candidate Shehbaz Sharif in prime minister (PM) polls. In reply PML N has also decided to withdrew its support for PPP’s opposition leader in Senate. 
Sources told Abb Takk that the PML-N has started contacting parties to woo their support to replace Sherry Rehman as the opposition leader.
Sources further informed that PML N has up till now contacted National Party, Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl).
Shehbaz was nominated as the prime minister candidate of the joint opposition, which included the PML-N, PPP, MMA and ANP.For the first time in the history of Pakistan, the PPP has decided to remain politically indifferent in the PM election.
PPP members will now attend the NA session on Friday, however, they will refrain from partaking in the election process.
The PPP will not vote for either PML-N’s Shehbaz Sharif or PTI’s Imran for the position of prime minister.
Speaking to reporters prior to the PPP meeting, Khrusheed Shah said his party had reservations over Shehbaz being the candidate for prime minister. Shah stressed that if the PML-N does not change its PM candidate then the PPP will make a decision accordingly.
“We have told PML-N of our reservations, we are working on [resolving it]. [But] if they don’t change their candidate then we will [make our own] decision,” he said.
PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique claimed that the PPP backtracked upon former president Asif Ali Zardari’s orders.
He said that earlier the PPP had agreed upon the PML-N candidate’s name. “We don’t blame Zardari sb for anything and are aware of his troubles,” said the former federal minister.
Numbers game
With the loss of the PPP (54 seats), Shehbaz Sharif will now face an almost impossible task to be elected as prime minister. The PML-N has 81 seats in the National Assembly and it is yet unclear if the party will still be supported by the MMA (15 seats) and ANP (1 seat). Jamaat-e-Islami which is part of the MMA has announced that it will not vote in the election.
On the other hand, Imran Khan’s PTI has 151 seats and with the support of its allies, the total stands at 175 which is more than the required simple majority.
On Wednesday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan submitted his nomination papers for the slot of Prime Minister.
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Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rasheed suggested the Imran Khan’s name for the Leader of the House while Fakhar Imam supported his nomination.
It is pertinent here to mention that on August 7, the PTI had formally nominated party’s supremo Imran Khan as their candidate for country’s next prime minister.
PTI vice president Shah Mehmood Qureshi presented a resolution nominating Imran as their PM candidate during a parliamentary meeting held at a private hotel in Islamabad after which, the party chairman was welcomed with a huge applause.
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Addressing the participants after his nomination, Imran Khan thanked the members for showing their trust in him. The change for which PTI had been struggling for 22 years will now going to be witnessed, he added.
The newly-elected members of National Assembly were also taken into confidence while discussion over the names of speaker and deputy speaker was also carried out.
General Election 2018
On July 25, millions of Pakistanis voted to elect a new government and prime minister in a peaceful elections held in free, fair and transparent manner.
Around 800,000 police and military forces were stationed at more than 85,000 polling stations across the country as the voting took place.
Pakistan is a country of approximately 207 million people, out of which the number of registered voters are about 106 million.
The voting for the Pakistan election, which took place between 8:00 am local time (8:30 am IST) and 6:00 pm (6:30 pm IST), saw more than 3,000 candidates contesting for 272 general seats of the National Assembly, while some 8,000 candidates ran for 577 general seats of the four provincial assemblies – Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan.
The PTI had taken the decisive lead by winning 116 seats against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and former President Asif Zardari s Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) which won 64 and 43 seats, respectively.
Besides these three major parties, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Pakistan won 13 seats, Muttahida Qaumi Movement Pakistan six seats, Pakistan Muslim League and Balochistan Awami Party four seats each, Balochistan National Party and Grand Democratic Alliance two seats each, Awami Muslim League Pakistan, Awami National Party, Jamhoori Wattan Party and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaniat one seat each.
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