Pakistani MPs vote for president
MPs began casting votes today in Pakistan’s presidential election in which the favourite by far is the scandal-tainted pro-US widower of murdered ex-PM Benazir Bhutto.
If elected, Asif Ali Zardari, the head of Pakistan’s main ruling party, could become one of the most powerful civilian leaders in Pakistan’s 61-year history.
He marshalled a coalition that, using the threat of impeachment, forced long-time US ally Pervez Musharraf to quit last month as head of state.
The presidential election comes at a sensitive time for the nuclear-armed, Muslim-majority nation of 160 million.
Pakistan’s economy is crumbling and it faces rising violence by militants. The latter is a major concern of the US, which wants Pakistan to eradicate militant havens on its side of the border with Afghanistan. A deadly American-led ground attack in Pakistani territory on Wednesday sparked outrage and embarrassed Mr Zardari’s party.
Mr Zardari faces off against Mushahid Hussain, a senator from the pro-Musharraf party routed in February and Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui, a former judge put forward by the opposition party of another ex-prime minister, Nawaz Sharif.
Large numbers of security forces guarded the parliament building in Islamabad today. Legislators in the four provincial assemblies also are eligible to vote in the secret ballot.
Members of Mr Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party expressed optimism.
“Our position is strong,” said Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a senior party leader.
Like his late wife, Mr Zardari is generally considered a pro-West liberal and he is not expected to change Pakistan’s commitment as an ally in the US war on terrorism despite the recent raid and suspected US missile strikes along the border.
Mr Zardari and senior party lieutenants have matched Mr Musharraf’s tough line against terrorism, insisting the battle against Islamic militants is Pakistan’s war.
But while that plays well in Washington, the test will be how much clout Mr Zardari wields over the military, whose stop-start battles with militants have failed to halt the rising strength of the Taliban.
Mr Zardari and his party have also promised to trim the powers of the presidency – enhanced by constitutional changes under Mr Musharraf – to bring it more in balance with the parliament and the prime minister.
The president can dissolve parliament and appoint army chiefs, and chairs the joint civilian-military committee that controls Pakistan’s nuclear weapons.
A horse-loving aristocrat who has spent more years in prison than in politics, Mr Zardari has impressed and surprised many with his ability to concentrate power since his wife was killed in a December and he inherited the leadership of her party.
Until his arranged marriage to Ms Bhutto in 1987, Mr Zardari was the unremarkable son of a landowning businessman and tribal chief from the southern province of Sindh.
Like many of this Muslim country’s elite, he attended Christian missionary schools and a top boarding school on the banks of the Indus River near Hyderabad. He has claimed to hold a bachelor’s degree from a business school in London, but his party has been unable to produce a certificate or establish what he studied.
