Next Pakistani President would come from PPP

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-18 22:20

ISLAMABAD -- Chairman of the Pakistan People' s Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Monday said the next Pakistani President would be from the PPP.

Talking to reporters in the lounge of the Karachi airport, Bilawal said he was not involved in the process of selection of the next president.

However, he pointed out that the next president would come from the PPP, coinciding with the allegation of his father Asif Ali Zardari who is the Co-Chairman of the PPP, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan.

In an earlier interview with the Express News TV, Zardari said that the PPP, being the majority party, had the right to appoint its own president once President Pervez Musharraf stepped down.

Musharraf Monday announced he would resign as Pakistani president, one day before the ruling coalition was expected to table his "charge sheet" in the National Assembly.

The PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) announced on August 7 that they would initiate proceedings to impeach Musharraf.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz ( PML-N) Secretary of Information and Minister for Education Ahsan Iqbal Monday said that all controversial amendments made to the Constitution by former President Pervez Musharraf would be scrapped.

Official Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) quoted Ahsan Iqbal as saying that the 1973 constitution would be restored in its original shape.

Ahsan Iqbal said that PML-N did not want to give safe exit to a person who violated the constitution for two times, sacked the judges and put curbs on media, but a decision would be taken by coalition partners collectively.

PML-N parliamentary leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said the restoration of the sacked judges is the top priority of the coalition government.

"First we would restore the deposed judges and then decide about who is going to be the next head of state," he said.

Musharraf Monday announced that he would resign as Pakistani President for national interest. He said he made the decision to avoid possible confrontation among pillars of the state although he had the right to defend himself against the imminent impeachment.

Musharraf came to power in 1999 through a bloodless military coup. He revised the constitution by adding the 52(B) article which entitled the president to dissolve the parliament.

Pakistan People's Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif on August 7 announced that they would initiate proceedings to impeach Musharraf.