Asif Ali Zardari, widower of slain premier Benazir Bhutto, on Saturday won a landslide victory in a triangular contest to become Pakistan’s next President.
The election was forced following resignation by military ruler General Pervez Musharraf after about nine years of absolute rule. Zardari, co-chairman of the PPP, will serve Musharraf’s unfinished term till November 2012.
Asif Zardari (53) secured 479 votes, 68.4 per cent of the 702-member electoral college, for presidential election comprising two houses of Parliament and four provincial assemblies. His nearest rival Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, backed by Nawaz Sharif’s PML-N, polled 153 while Mushahid Hussain Sayed, secretary general of the pro-Musharraf PML-Q, fared poorly by securing only 43 votes.
Zardari won by an overwhelming majority in Parliament and the provincial assemblies of Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan but was beaten in the country’s biggest province and Nawaz Sharif’s strong-hold - Punjab. He polled 123 against 201 secured by PML-N’s Saeeduzzaman. Mushahid could bag only 36 votes in the 371-member house.
Nawaz Sharif who pulled out of PPP-led coalition in the Centre on August 25 because of differences over the issue of restoration of deposed judges, called Zardari on telephone and congratulated him on his victory.
Sharif assured Zardari of his full cooperation in making the new democratic dispensation a success in keeping with the provisions of the Charter of Democracy he singed with Benazir Bhutto in May 2006 to rid the country of military rule and restore a constitutional democracy.
The crucial contest was set in Punjab where PML-N leads the coalition in partnership with the PPP. Zardari’s trouble shooters, including provincial governor Salman Tseer and Prime Minister’s adviser Manzoor Wattoo, had pinned hopes of toppling Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif. Wattoo had threatened that the government would ask Shahbaz Sharif to seek fresh vote of confidence if PML-N candidate polled less than the requisite simple majority of 186. Saeed got 201 votes.
In the two houses of Parliament, Zardari secured 281 votes, 12 short of two-third (293) majority needed to amend the constitution.
