Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Sher Afzal Marwat has claimed that former president Asif Ali Zardari had approached him for a coalition to form government.

“Till 11:00pm last night, Asif Zardari had been contacting me through other people. I was discussing these contacts with the available leadership such as Aleema Khan, Sheharyar Afridi, and Shandana Gulzar,” he said during a media talk on Wednesday.

According to Marwat, the Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) leader had told the PTI leadership that it will priorities making a coalition with the PTI instead of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

“Imran Khan has clearly said that we will not form a government with those who stole our mandate. However, I will tell him [Khan] about this development in tomorrow’s meeting,” the PTI leader said.

The PTI has announced a coalition with the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) for forming government in centre and Punjab, along with the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government.

However, JI earlier today refused to shake hands with the PTI for KP government accusing the latter of changing stance regarding the agreement.

Meanwhile, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the party will support PML-N in government formation in centre, however, he refused to become part of the Federal Cabinet.

Kundi responds to Marwat’s claim

In response, PPP leader Faisal Karim Kundi rejected Marwat’s claims, adding that the party has already made its official position clear.

He said that Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari had expressed support for PMLN’s candidate in a press conference on Tuesday and Asif Zardari had also made the party’s policy clear after a meeting ofallied parties.

Kundi said that with the policy already stated, there was no need for PPP to contact anyone.

He also took a jab at Marwat, saying PTI should put forward someone ‘serious’ if it had a statement to make.

Kundi also said that it was still not clear how many of the victorious independent candidates were affiliated with the PTI.