Zardari to be Pakistan President candidate
August 23, 2008
Islamabad: Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto will be a candidate for president, an official of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said on Saturday.
The Pakistan People’s Party wanted Zardari to run for presidential election which will be held on September 6 to choose a successor for Pervez Musharraf, who resigned on Monday.
“Mr Asif Zardari has accepted to contest the election for the office of president of Pakistan after the party unanimously drafted him to do so,” PPP deputy secretary general Raza Rabbani told reporters.
Rabbani said Zardari had been chosen in part in tribute to the sacrifices of his wife, who was killed in a suicide attack at an election rally in December.
The party official said the PPP, which is the main party in a fragile coalition government, had consulted its partners before announcing that Zardari was their choice to lead the nation.
“The coalition partners were informed about this decision and we are optimistic that the coalition will remain intact,” he said.
The PPP and the party of former premier Nawaz Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, have been at odds over how to reinstate dozens of judges sacked by Musharraf last year.
Sharif has said he would back Zardari for president if he were to do away with the presidential power created by Musharraf to dissolve parliament.
On the issue of the judges, Rabbani said the “judges will be restored” but said a timeframe would be announced at a later unspecified date.
Comments
Got something to say?