Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday claimed it will get the required number of seats to form the government in Punjab.
Spokesperson of the party Fawad Chaudhry, talking to Geo News, said four more candidates have pledged alliance to the party.
The total count of PTI’s seats in the provincial assembly will reach 140 by tonight, Chaudhry claimed.
He further added that the party was in contact with other independent candidates in Punjab.
According to sources familiar with the matter, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) will form an alliance with PTI.
A delegation of PML-Q is scheduled to meet PTI chief Imran Khan at his Bani Gala residence in the federal capital later today.
The alliance could add eight seats to PTI’s total — seven candidates of PML-Q and one independent candidate who joined the party earlier.
In a move that came as a surprise to spectators, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) contacted its former member Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan — who contested the election as an independent candidate.
The veteran politician, a political heavyweight of Rawalpindi who has been a member of every National Assembly since 1985, lost both his NA seats — NA-59 and NA-60 — in the July 25 polls.
However, he was able to win a seat in the provincial assembly from PP-10 constituency. Nisar also contested the polls from PP-12, though he was unable to stand victorious from the constituency.
According to information received from sources, Nisar had responded positively to PML-N leaders.
With 13 independent candidates that the party claims have pledged support to PML-N, it now needs the support of only four more independent candidates to reach the minimum count — 148 — to form the government in Punjab.
In a statement, PML-N leader Senate Mushahid Hussain said his party was positive that it will form the government in the province. “We have more members in the Punjab Assembly and it is our right to form the government here,” he observed.
The support of at least 148 members is required for a party to have its chief minister elected in the province.
On Sunday, sources informed Geo News that PML-Q refused to extend its support to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to form the government in Punjab.
With back-to-back joinings of independent candidates, PTI has emerged — at least on paper — as the largest party in terms of its share of seats in the assembly.
