As Pakistan’s newly elected parliament meets, a look at the PM candidates

While ex-PM Shehbaz Sharif of the PMLN-PPP alliance is a frontrunner, independents backed by Imran Khan’s PTI hope to clinch a surprise.

Islamabad, Pakistan – Who will be the next prime minister of Pakistan?

That will be the big question as the country’s parliament convenes on Thursday for the first time after the controversial February 8 national elections, marred by large-scale allegations of rigging and manipulation of results.

The tense election threw a split verdict, with independent candidates backed by the jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party winning 93 seats, followed by three-time PM Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) securing 75, and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) 54.

The PMLN and the PPP are in a coalition to form the government, with one of the PTI-backed legislators also joining Sharif’s party.

In the run-up to the vote, the PTI was stripped of its election symbol by the Election Commission of Pakistan for violating election laws, forcing its candidates to run as independents.

The meeting of the National Assembly, the lower house of Pakistan’s parliament, is being called on the last day of a three-week window during which a session of the house must be convened to begin the process of government formation.

In the 336-member National Assembly, 266 members are directly elected and 70 are nominated – 60 seats reserved for women and 10 for representatives of religious minorities. The nominations are based on the performance of each political party in the election.

A political party or alliance needs 169 seats in the National Assembly to assume power.

To secure their share of reserved seats, 89 of the remaining 92 PTI-backed parliamentarians joined the