Pakistan: Oppositions join hands against Imran Khan

     Written by : SMTV24x7 | Fri, Aug 03, 2018, 02:29 PM

Pakistan: Oppositions join hands against Imran Khan

Islamabad, Aug 03: Even after a tremendous victory in the Pakistan general election, another hurdle is ready in the way of Imran Khan. Two major political parties have decided to stop Khan by fielding their own prime ministerial candidate.

The rival parties have vowed to vote together with several smaller parties against Khan's election as PM in parliament. Khan is set to take oath on August 11 as prime minister of Pakistan.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won 116 of the 272 elected seats in the National Assembly. It is believed that the PTI has secured the support of smaller parties and Independent candidates to form the next government.

The main rival parties on Thursday repeated accusations that the July 25 vote was rigged by the military. Several other political outfits also accused the military of rigging elections and falsely making Khan's PTI the winner.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) joined with the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and several smaller nationalist and regional parties in forming the opposition alliance known as the All Parties Conference.

"It is an alliance which is against the rigged elections, and where all the political parties were not provided a free and fair, level playing field," Maryam Aurangzeb, speaking for the PML-N of jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, told Reuters. The PML-N and PPP won 64 and 43 seats, respectively.

On Sunday, the leaders of the PML-N and PPP met for the first time after the election and reportedly reached an understanding on cooperation. "It was an ice-breaker," said PML-N's Mushahid Hussain Sayed, when asked about the outcome of the meeting. "It was a very good meeting and you can call it a meeting of the minds."