Reacting to the rigging charges, Shehbaz said that in several areas PML-N stalwarts lost and independents won.

Pakistan Elections: Elections in Pakistan are done with, and so is the counting, and the result is “no one” has secured the majority to form a government in the politically volatile country.

However, the major parties including Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) are trying to ally. Amidst all this, former prime minister of Pakistan Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday reaffirmed that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif will become the prime minister for a record fourth time.

Shehbaz Sharif is the younger brother of Nawaz Sharif.

Nawaz Sharif became the prime minister in 1990 but had to leave the seat due to corruption allegations.

He came to power for the second time in 1997 and held the prime minister’s post till 1999 when he was deposed in a military coup after plotting to sideline army chief of staff Pervez Musharraf.

In 2013, he became the prime minister for the third time only to find himself embroiled when his children were named in the 2016 Panama Papers leak for holding offshore companies and he was convicted over separate corruption allegations and disqualified from office for life.

He could not complete a full term on all three occasions.

“I still stand by my words that Nawaz Sharif will become prime minister for the fourth time,” Dawn News quoted Shehbaz Sharif as saying at a press conference in Lahore.

Reacting to the rigging charges, Shehbaz said that in several areas PML-N stalwarts lost and independents won.

“In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the majority is of independent candidates, does it mean they won through rigging? And in Sindh and Balochistan, there was no sign of independents. On behalf of my party, independents are free, if they want to make a government, go ahead. We will sit in the opposition and fulfill our role,” said Shehbaz adding that after the party lost in 2018, it did not abuse anyone or hold any sit-ins.

“We went to Parliament with black armbands. Who doesn’t know that the election was stolen? We didn’t say we would set Parliament on fire or give the nation a message of civil disobedience,” he said.

Shehbaz said the next phase had begun after the polls. “If they call themselves PTI-sponsored or non-PTI-sponsored – if they can form a government then they should. The president will not give them an invitation,” said Shehbaz.

“If they can show the majority [in the Assembly] then we will gladly sit in the opposition benches and play the constitutional role. If they cannot make a government, then obviously other political parties will decide with consensus and field a candidate. This is the constitutional way. We need to move forward like this and finalise the upcoming phase,” said Sharif who took power after cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan was ousted in a no-trust move in April 2022.

Independent candidates, mostly backed by Khan’s PTI, won 101 seats in the 266-member National Assembly in the February 8 general elections. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N has won 75 seats and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto’s PPP has won 54 seats.

The PTI-backed candidates contested as independents as the party lost its election symbol following controversy surrounding its intra-party elections.

The PTI claims that it was cruising with a lead on 170 National Assembly seats before the alleged rigging swung the pendulum in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).