Pakistan's Sharif seeks united front to face challenges

Sharif made the appeal in a speech at his party headquarters in the eastern city of Lahore on Sunday.
 
He asked all parties "to come to the table and sit with me and solve the country's problems."
 
    "We should thank Allah that he has given PML-N [Muslim League] another chance to serve you and Pakistan," Sharif said.
 
 
Sharif has declared victory for his center-right party, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, in Pakistan's general elections.
 
Based on partial unofficial results, Sharif’s party has secured 126 seats of the 272 directly elected seats of the National Assembly. An additional 70 seats - 60 for women and 10 for non-Muslims - will be allocated on the basis of a party’s share in the directly elected seats.
 
Former cricket star, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has gained 34 seats.
 
This means no single party has won a simple majority, raising the prospects for a coalition government.
 
President Asif Ali Zardari's Pakistan People Party (PPP) is in a race for the second place with the PTI, but both seem likely to win fewer than 40 seats.
 
The PPP along with the Karachi-based Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) were forced to curtail their campaigning due to militant threats.
 
Officials say nearly 60 percent of the 86 million voters turned out in the elections in which about 86 million people were eligible to vote.
 
Elections for a total of 577 seats in the four provincial assemblies were also held on the same day.
 
The new government will face stalled economy, profound infrastructural failure, and grave threats from an emboldened Taliban.