Lahore: Pakistan`s main opposition PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif has said his party will forge an alliance with the Jamaat-e-Islami and two factions of the Pakistan Muslim League for the 2013 general election.
"We will be comfortable in having seat adjustments with the Jamaat-e-Islami and the likeminded and functional factions of the PML," the former premier said while talking to reporters yesterday.
There are two groups in the Jamaat-e-Islami, one led by its general secretary Liaquat Baloch that favours an alliance with the PML-N, and another headed by party chief Munawar Hasan that wants to join hands with Imran Khan`s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf.
A Jamaat-e-Islami spokesman told PTI that the party is keeping its options open and a final decision on forming an alliance with any party will be made by its Majlis-e-Shura (chief council).
Sharif, whose party rules the most populous and politically crucial province of Punjab, ruled out any possibility of a technocrat government being formed in Pakistan on the lines of a model tried out in Bangladesh recently.
"Those who are talking about such things are wasting their time," he said.
"There is no chance of a delay in the elections on any excuse as a delay is neither in the interest of the government nor any other institution," he said.
Sharif said he was optimistic that the polls would be held in time and things would move forward through the exercise.
In view of the "declining popularity graph" of the Pakistan People`s Party-led government, it would have done better if it had gone for the electoral exercise a year ago, he said.
He warned that any move to rig the polls could give birth to grave issues.
PTI
