Bilawal Bhutto Zardari withdraws from PM's candidacy

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday decided to withdraw from PM's candidacy in favour of the Pakistan Muslim League.

Addressing a press conference after the party's central executive committee meeting, Bilawal announced to support its political competitor Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) candidate for the prime minister's slot but not to be a part of the government in the Centre.

"It is a fact that the PPP does not have a mandate to form the federal government and due to that I will not be putting myself forward for the candidacy of the prime minister of Pakistan," he added.

The young politician further said that as the PPP is not in a position to form the government in the Centre, it would not be interested in taking federal ministries in the setup.

"We don’t want to see chaos in the country or perpetual crisis in the country," Bilawal said while setting aside the perception of re-election.

Revealing the reason behind backing the rival party's candidate for the coveted post, Bilawal said that the PPP decided to support the PML-N's candidate for the premiership to ensure political instability in the country.

PPP has decided that while we are not in the position to join the federal government, nor are we interested in taking ministries in such a setup, we also don’t want to see political chaos in the country. We don’t want to see a perpetual crisis in our country – Chairman PPP… pic.twitter.com/tJvNMIQjLR

— PPP (@MediaCellPPP) February 13, 2024

Earlier, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) claimed that the former ruling party, upon directions of its founder Imran Khan, will join hands with Majlis-e-Wahdat-Muslimeen (MWM) to form its governments in Centre and Punjab.