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.
Love him or hate him, Zardari is the “ELECTED” president of the country. He did not come into power through martial law, he has people’s votes behind him.
Pakistan Zindabad!
tamam Mush supporters ko Dogar court aur NRO mubarik
Saving Mush’s back side was so important that even the complete destruction of the judiciary was worth it.
Enjoy.
Pakistani voters should’ve written letters, emails or in some way contacted their representatives and suggested who to vote for. Having elected them doesn’t end the voters’ say in the state affairs in a democratic system.
I don’t believe that the majority of pakistanis wanted zardari to be their president. They just don’t understand their rights.
I still blame Musharraf for letting Zardari and al-qaeda into the country.
Tamam PPP supporters ko jashn-e-zardari mubarik
no independent judiciary, no accountability and no checks and balances
percentage zindabad
It is one thing to blame Zardari for his corruption but it is entirely inexusable to hit at the very concept of democracy in Pakistan.
That the 90s was a bad time has a lot to do with the role of the ‘Agencies’ starting right from the ’88 elections. Please look up what people like Hamid Gul now confesses to, to better understand what happened then and why.
Democracy is simply a code of conduct where people, regardless of however ‘illiterate’, choose who should solve their problems. Over time, bad democracies can become good democracies. People can’t be fooled all the time.
As to someone who is trying to tell me below that autocratic systems have ‘worked’ in human history, I would like to say that merely ‘worked’ would need clarification wrt their efficacy and endurance. In Pakistan too, Ayub’s era ‘worked’ in economic matters but, by 1969, seeds of E. Pakistan’s secession were firmly established. Yes, some achievement. Contrast that with most stable and prosperous countries of the world where democracy has delivered. Even in India, with less than the magical ‘70%’ literacy rate democracy has provided a level of stability which could not have been possible with an autocratic system.
President Zardari is people’s choice. If he does not solve their problems then he can be kicked out in 5 years. But if a military ruler does not solve Pakistan’s problem then often only divine interventions in the form of ‘Mango Crates’ can save people.