Islamabad, 20 Feb

The Pakistan People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz finally reached an agreement to establish a new coalition government in Pakistan after days of negotiations on Tuesday, party leaders said.

In a joint news conference late on Tuesday night, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari announced that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif is set to assume the role of Prime Minister again while PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari is slated to become the country's next President.

"The PPP and PML-N have achieved the required number, and [now] we are in a position to form the government," Bhutto-Zardari was quoted as saying by Geo News.

He said former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party-backed candidates and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) failed to achieve a simple majority to form government in the Centre.

Independent candidates - a majority backed by 71-year-old Khan's party -- won 93 National Assembly seats in the election.

Speaking on the occasion, Shehbaz Sharif asserted that his party now has the “required numbers” with the PPP to be in a position to form the next government as he thanked the leadership of the two parties for the positive conclusion to the talks.

The former prime minister emphasised the unity between the two parties, noting that they were well-positioned to form the government at the Centre, The Express Tribune newspaper reported. The announcement came a day after the latest round of talks between the top leaders of the two parties ended inconclusively on Monday as both sides failed to reach a consensus on a power-sharing formula to form a coalition government at the Centre following a fractured verdict in the February 8 election.

Sharif said that the journey ahead for the new government would not be easy but fraught with many difficulties and obstacles. He asserted that the coalition alliance will tackle them together, the Dawn newspaper reported. The general elections have been controversial, with several serious allegations of widespread rigging to alter the results.

Though independent candidates backed by PTI party of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan won the maximum number of seats in Parliament, PML-N and PPP have announced that they will form a coalition government after the elections resulted in a hung Parliament. Independent candidates - a majority backed by Khan's PTI party -- won 93 National Assembly seats in the election.