Islamabad, 23 Feb

With a power-sharing deal already inked, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party are moving ahead with plans to form a coalition government by 2 March and hold the presidential election before 9 March, according to a media report on Friday.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led by three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif will be backed by the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) of former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari has agreed to form a new government after the 8 February elections resulted in a hung Parliament.

Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, 72, is set to return to the top post after his elder brother Nawaz, decided to nominate the PML-N president for premiership. The party has clarified that the three-time former prime minister did not want to lead a government in which the PMN-L does not have a majority in Parliament. Both parties won fewer seats than candidates backed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Quoting sources, The News International reported that serious consideration is being given to the proposal to hold the presidential election before 9 March as the newly elected assemblies across the country will take oath by 29 February and a new government be in place by 2 March.

Incumbent President Dr Arif Alvi's five-year tenure officially ended in September of last year. However, the dentist-turned-politician, who was a senior member of Khan's PTI before being appointed to the post in 2018, continued to stay in the office even after the expiration of his stipulated constitutional term.

The PML-N, PPP, and their allied parties want the presidential election to be held by 8 March before the completion of the current tenure of the Senate and for the Senate elections to be held after the president is elected. When contacted, PPP senior leader Senator Farooq H Naek said that according to  Article 41, read with the second schedule of the Constitution, the presidential election has to be held within 30 days of the general elections.