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WORLD> Asia-Pacific
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Pakistani lawmakers start voting on next president
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-09-06 15:18 ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Lawmakers began casting votes Saturday in Pakistan's presidential election, a race where the favorite by far is the scandal-tainted pro-US widower of slain ex-Prime Minister 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 marshaled a coalition that, using the threat of impeachment, forced longtime 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 Zardari's party. 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 Saturday. Legislators in the four provincial assemblies also are eligible to vote in the secret ballot. Members of Zardari's Pakistan People's Party expressed optimism. "Our position is strong," said Makhdoom Amin Fahim, a senior party leader. Like his late wife, Zardari is generally considered pro-West and a 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. Zardari and senior party lieutenants have matched 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 Zardari wields over the military, whose stop-start battles with militants have failed to halt the rising strength of the Taliban. Zardari and his party also have promised to trim the powers of the presidency -- enhanced by constitutional changes under 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, Zardari has impressed and surprised many with his ability to concentrate power since his wife was killed in December and he inherited the leadership of her party. Until his arranged marriage to Bhutto in 1987, 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. Zardari was quickly accused of meddling in the affairs of Bhutto's party and sidelining party stalwarts in favor of cronies. He served as minister for the environment and investment in the second of her two governments, each of which was dismissed before the end of its term for corruption and misrule. Foes and many ordinary Pakistanis still refer to him as "Mr. 10 Percent," because of allegations that he pocketed commissions on government contracts for everything from a license to import gold to the purchase of 8,000 Polish tractors. Zardari went through about 11 years in jail in two spells as well as marathon court proceedings. But he was never convicted at home or in corruption and money-laundering investigations in Britain, Spain and Switzerland. Zardari insists the cases were politically motivated attempts -- first by archrival Sharif, later by Musharraf and the military-dominated establishment he represented -- to demonize his wife and prevent her return from self-imposed exile in Dubai and London. When she did return home in October, it was under an ill-fated power-sharing deal with Musharraf, who ordered an amnesty covering all corruption cases pending from Bhutto's terms of office. Zardari did not initially follow her home. He spent much of the time after his release from jail in 2004 in New York and reportedly received treatment for ailments including heart and back problems that his aides attributed to his prolonged incarceration. In a court case in London, his lawyers even argued he had suffered stress-induced mental illness -- though supporters insist he has made a full recovery and is fit to be president. |
