Pak parties pick Shehbaz Sharif as new PM

ISLAMABAD, Feb 22 (AP): Khan's rivals said at a late-night news conference of party leaders that they had secured the required majority of votes to form a coalition government. The parliament will elect Shehbaz Sharif of the PML as the new prime minister when the inaugural session of the National Assembly is convened later this month, the party leaders said.

They also said former President Asif Ali Zardari of the PPP will be their joint candidate for president when the new parliament and all the four provincial legislatures elect the successor of the outgoing President Arif Ali in the coming weeks.

Earlier Tuesday, Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party asked for the resignation of the head of Pakistan's Election Commission, Sikandar Sultan Raja, for allegedly failing to conduct the elections in a free and fair manner. Khan's party claims the victories of dozens of its candidates were converted into defeat, a charge the elections oversight body denies.

Though Khan's candidates won 93 out of 265 National Assembly seats in the elections, it was not enough to form a government.