Islamabad:
Two former archivals – PML -N and PPP – have announced that they will dispute the next by -elections. The parties will also contact other parts of the ruling coalition for wider coordination.
This announcement was made on Saturday after a high-level PML-N delegation including the federal ministers hanif Abbasi and Tariq Fazal Chaudhry met a delegation of senior PPP at the residence of the PPP chief, Raja Pervez Ashraf in Islamabad.
The meeting focused on the partial elections strategy to be held in various constituencies mainly due to the depreciation of a certain number of PTI legislators given their conviction in the cases of riot of May 9. Discussions included the development of a joint plan for the partial elections, sources said.
Addressing the media later, Ashraf declared that the PML-N would support the PPP in the constituencies where the PPP candidate was second in the general elections of February 2024. “Likewise, the PPP will extend his support in the constituencies where the candidate PML-N was second in the general elections.”
He said that this formula had been finalized in the light of the management of the two parties.
Speaking on occasion, Hanif Abbasi said that the two parties are allies in the Senate, the National Assembly and the provincial assemblies. “We will contested jointly the by-elections and will ensure success together,” he added.
Some political analysts believe that for the PPP to resume its territory in Punjab, it will have to attract anti-PML-N voters by a real confrontation with the Sharif party, which, ironically, is now the PPP partner since Imran Khan’s eviction in April 2022.
The PPP supported the coalition government led by the PML-N formed after the general elections of February 8, 2024 without being part of it when it was part of the coalition government formed after the collapse of the PTI government following a vote of non-confidence.
After the general elections, in which no party could achieve a simple majority, the PPP and the PML-N agree on a formula of sharing power with the first constitutional posts of the president, the governor of two provinces and the presidency of the Senate.
