New Pak govt likely by March 2; presidential election before March 9: Report

With a powersharing deal already inked the Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz and the Pakistan Peoples Party are moving ahead with plans to form a coalition government by March 2 and hold the presidential election before March 9 according to a media report on FridayThe Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz PMLN led by threetime prime minister Nawaz Sharif will be backed by the Pakistan Peoples Party PPP of former foreign minister Bilawal BhuttoZardari has agreed to form a new government after the February 8 elections resulted in a hung ParliamentFormer prime minister Shehbaz Sharif 72 is set to return to the top post after his elder brother Nawaz decided to nominate the PMLN president for premiershipThe party has clarified that the threetime former prime minister did not want to lead a government in which the PMNL does not have a majority in ParliamentBoth parties won fewer seats than candidates backed by jailed former Prime Minister Imran KhanQuoting sources The News International reported that serious consideration is being given to the proposal to hold the presidential election before March 9 as the newly elected assemblies across the country will take oath by February 29 and a new government be in place by March 2Incumbent President Dr Arif Alvis fiveyear tenure officially ended in September of last year However the dentistturnedpolitician who was a senior member of Khans PTI before being appointed to the post in 2018 continued to stay in the office even after the expiration of his stipulated constitutional termThe PMLN PPP and their allied parties want the presidential election to be held by March 8 before the completion of the current tenure of the Senate and for the Senate elections to be held after the president is electedWhen 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 electionsThis means that the presidential election is to be held before March 9 he was quoted as saying by the reportPresident Alvi 74 had agreed to perform his duties until the appointment of his successor as the assemblies were dissolved in August and the elections were not held as per the constitutional time limitPPP CoChairperson Asif Ali Zardari 68 will likely return to the presidency as earlier this week the Bilawalled party and PMLN agreed to nominate him for the constitutional office as a joint candidate in return for helping Shehbaz Sharif form the government at the Centre under a powersharing agreementTo form a government a party must win 133 out of 265 contested seats in the 266member National AssemblyThe powersharing deal was finalised after no political party secured a simple majority in the February 8 elections forcing parties to join hands in their bid to form a government and deny a chance to Imran Khans PTI to return to powerShehbaz Sharif and Bilawal have said that they have the required support to form a coalition governmentIn the polls Khans PTIbacked independent candidates secured victory on the most National Assembly seats 92 followed by the PMLN 79 and the PPP 54Meanwhile Pakistan Muslim League N president and prime ministerdesignate Shehbaz Sharif on Friday met delegations from MQM the Muslim League Q and the Balochistan Awami Party and discussed issues related to the countrys situation and political cooperationIt is everyones responsibility to save the country from economic threats Shahbaz Sharif said and vowed to move forward unitedly to serve the peopleThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever