Asif Ali Zardari becomes the President of Pakistan today after winning the presidential election. He secured 479 votes out of 702. His opponents, Retired Chief Justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui received 153 elctoral votes and Senator Mushahid Hussein received 43. Asif’s victory in three provinces is overwhelming, especially in Sindh where his opposing candidates couldn’t get a single vote. Only in Punjab Assembly Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqi is able to get more votes than Asif.
The vote by the two houses of parliament and four provincial assemblies forms the 1,170-member, but 702-vote, electoral college. According to a Dawn update:
‘Asif Ali Zardari secured 281 votes out of the 426 valid votes polled in the parliament,’ chief election commissioner Qazi Mohammad Farooq said. He has secured 458 out of 702 electoral college votes, according to partial Election Commission results.
Asif Zardari is the 13th President of Pakistan. The ones who have been President before him include: Iskandar Mirza, Ayub Khan, Yahya Khan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry, Zia-ul-Haq, Ghulam Ishaq Khan, Waseem Sajjad, Farooq Laghari, Waseem Sajjad, Rafiq Tarar and Pervaiz Musharraf. Waseem Sajjad has twice been the President of Pakistan.
Check out the Pakistani political mag NEWSLINE of this month with its article ”ZARDARI IN BLUNDERLAND!”
I think all the people who think that Zardari should not be President should form a party and then vote their man into power. SInce you all think that this is what majority of Pakistanis want, it should be easy.
No?
Gahhhhhh….that grin in the top picture…..Mr. 10%’s dreams all coming true for him.
I have no words to express myself; I’m sure my comment would be deleted if I did. This is so many steps backwards for Pakistan and the people of Pakistan.
God bless all of you.
Some Zardari apologists regularly ask why Zardari is singled out etc etc.
One can turn around and ask them why they used to single out Mush as a violator of the constitution when the constitution also says that a theif will not be eligible to contest elections. If you want to apply the constitution (and that should indeed be done), then why is Zardari given a special exemption?
The claims that Zardari never got convicted etc are nonsense considering that the man is in power and can restore the judges and face his corruption cases in an independent judiciary instead of relying on the NRO. If he is innocent and the corruption charges are bogus, then he should not have any trouble getting his cases squashed by an independent judiciary. Just because a crook has a vote bank does not mean he should be above the law.
As for other people with ill-gotten wealth, have them tried for corruption by an independent judiciary too, instead of demanding that Zardari be spared because there are also other thieves around. That PPP apologists regularly insist on the latter instead of working for independent institutions and the rule of law where all crooks can be held accountable shows their moral bankrupcy.
I’m Indian and I’m hoping democracy in Pakistan will lead to better relations between India and Pakistan. Unfortunately, democracy doesn’t mean much in our sub continent, and I’ve seen fundamentalism get ugly despite of India’s secular stance. I think it’ll take more than mere politicians to bring about a change.
I run a podcast site where I have an excerpt shared by Farzana Versey from her book, A Journey Interrupted- Being Indian in Pakistan. You might find it interesting:
http://www.ideajugglers.com
Would you agree with the views?