Will take oath as Pak PM on Aug 11: Imran

Imran Khan said on Monday he will take oath as Prime Minister on August 11, even as his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was striving to get the required numbers to form a government.

PTI, led by 65-year-old Khan, emerged as the single largest party in the National Assembly, but it is still in the process of mustering numbers to form the government. Khan’s party on Sunday announced it is trying to reach out to smaller parties and Independents.

Khan said he will take oath as Prime Minister on 11th of next month (August), staterun Radio Pakistan reported. “I have also decided about Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

CM, which I will announce in the next 48 hours. Whatever I have decided is in the best interest of the people,” he said, talking to PTI members of provincial assembly. In Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, PTI won a two-thirds majority by bagging 65 seats in the assembly of 99 members.

He said alleviation of poverty from interior Sindh will be among top priorities

of his government.

On Saturday, spokesman Naeemul Haque had said the party chief will take oath as the PM before August 14.

He said he hoped the president would call an assembly session and take oath as PM before the Independence day.

He said Khan would prefer a peoples’ ceremony of oathtaking where thousands can watch him take the oath.

“Perhaps D-Chowk may be the right place to do it,” he said, referring to Islamabad’s famous D-Chowk where the party had staged its 126-day sit-in in 2014 against alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections.

Meanwhile, two main parties — PML-N and PPP — agreed on formulation of a “coordinated joint strategy” if the PTI manages to form its government at the Centre. The understanding on cooperation was reached during the first direct meeting between the leaders of the PML-N and PPP. “It was an ice-breaker,” said PMLN’s Mushahid Hussain Sayed. Since MMA has 12 seats, the combined seats of the PPP, PML-N and MMA become 117 — two more than Khan’s party.