LAHORE  -   Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Tuesday nominated party president Shehbaz Sharif for the post of prime minister. The party also announced that Nawaz Sharif’s daughter Maryam Nawaz will PML-N candidate for the Punjab Chief Minister.

 PML-N Secretary Information Marriyum Aurangzeb announced the development late Tuesday night on social media platform X. She wrote, “Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League -N, has nominated Mr Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif for the post of Prime Minister of the Islamic republic of Pakistan, while Maryam Nawaz has been nominated for the post of Chief Minister Punjab.”

The decision came hours after former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif reaffirmed that the PMLN supremo Nawaz Sharif will become the prime minister for a record fourth time. A few hours earlier, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari dropped out of the race for prime minister and said his party would support any candidate proposed by the Nawaz Sharif-led PML-N.

Also, PML-N President Mian Shehbaz Sharif Tuesday threw a challenge to the PTI-backed candidates to form government in the center and hinted at sitting on the opposition benches if they showed majority in the National Assembly. Addressing a press conference here, Shehbaz Sharif remarked, “If the independent candidates, whether affiliated with PTI or otherwise, can muster enough support to form a government, they are welcome to do so.”

He emphasised that if the independents show majority in the National Assembly, the PMLN would sit on the opposition benches. However, if they fail to establish a government, Shehbaz Sharif said that other political entities would collaborate to form the government.

The PML-N president said that this was the constitutional and democratic way, and we have to follow this path. He said the ma­jority of independents emerged in KPK with no sign of them seen in Sindh and Balochistan. 

He said he had contacted all the political parties to form the government irrespective of whether we liked it or not. He said that PML-N was the single largest political party in the cen­ter followed by the PPP. 

Shehbaz said that results have been declared and the next step begins [to form governments] because the country has to move forward. He said political par­ties contested elections against each other and now it was time to end inflation, unemployment and maintain law and order. “We have to fix the dwindling econ­omy, control inflation, maintain law and order and eliminate ter­rorism”. He said the country was currently facing immense chal­lenges. Replying to a question, Shehbaz Sharif said that the very first challenge facing the new government would be to go for another IMF package without any delay. There is no escape to it, whether it is a coalition govern­ment or otherwise, he stressed. 

Asked if the PML-N would also invite the PPP to form a coali­tion government in Punjab, the PML-N president replied that Mian Nawaz Sharif had in speech talked of taking along all politi­cal forces on board even if it had majority in the legislatures. 

Responding to a question about the new prime minister, he said that he said that Nawaz Sharif remained the PM-N’s choice for the PM slot. He said there was no change in his ear­lier stance on this matter. 

Answering another question, Shehbaz Sharif claimed that PML-N had attained majority in Punjab Assembly whereas it was the single largest party in the National Assembly with the sup­port of 80 members. 

Asked to comment on the re­ported power-sharing formula with a five-year term of PM to be divided between the PML-N and the PPP, Shehbaz Sharif replied: “I don’t want any term, I just want the prosperity of Pakistan”. 

Responding to a question about the moral justification for seek­ing support of the PTI backed in­dependents, Shehbaz Sharif said that they were free to make any decision according to the con­stitution and law. “If some peo­ple from Balochistan and KPK come to join [the PML-N] with their own choice, what objection do you have over it”. He asked. Shehbaz questioned whether it was right when some members were forcibly brought to Bani Gala in 2018 [to make them join the PTI]”. He also recalled that af­ter the 2013 elections, we were advised to form a government in KPK, and we could have formed it, but Mian Nawaz Sharif op­posed the idea saying that PTI was the single largest party there and it was their right to form the government. Responding to the PTI’s allegation of rigging in the election, Shehbaz Sharif said that on the one hand the allegation is that rigging was done, while on the other, their candidates won in the KPK province. “If rigging was done, why did our strong candidates like Khawaja Saad Rafique and Rana Sanaullah face defeat? he asked.