ISLAMABAD: With 27 days left to elect new president of Pakistan to succeed Asif Ali Zardari, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is keeping its choice close to its chest, but there are indications he will come from a smaller province, not Punjab.
The new president will be another powerless Fazal Elahi Chaudhry and Rafiq Tarar as the constitution, drastically transformed through the 18th Amendment, envisages only a dummy, titular head of state.
The presidency will lose its status of being the nucleus of power it had been for several years.
“It is natural that our president will be from any province other than Punjab when we have the prime minister and the National Assembly speaker from there,” a senior official said.
Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari, elected by the previous Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) government, also belongs to Punjab. In the 2008 presidential election, the PML-N fielded former Supreme Court Chief Justice Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui against Zardari.
It is unlikely that with the change of its role, the present ruling party will repeat its old nomination.
The official said that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wanted to have the speaker from a smaller province instead of Punjab, but could not as his party did not have any option because too many of its candidates did not return from Sindh, Baluchistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
During his second tenure in the 1990s, Sharif got Tarar, from Punjab, elected president. Then, the speaker belonged to Sindh and the Senate chairman to Punjab.
The names of Sartaj Aziz, Foreign Affairs Adviser to the prime minister, and Ghous Ali Shah are doing the rounds.
They meet an ‘essential qualification’ — they hail from smaller provinces Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh, respectively. They also enjoy the confidence of Sharif, are old Leaguers and very senior politicians.
The source said it was premature to say that either Aziz or Shah will be the final PML-N candidate.
He did not rule out the emergence of a dark horse and said that the decision lies with the prime minister.
Over the past five years, Sharif made it a point to stand with Baluch and Sindhi nationalists and parties and made alliances with them. He wants to attach special consideration to this fact while picking up his president, the source said.
He said that given the numerical position of the PML-N and its allies in the National Assembly, Senate and four provincial legislatures, which serve as the Electoral College for the election, its presidential nominee will win with a big margin.
The PPP candidate would bag the second highest number of votes because of support in the national and Sindh assemblies and the Senate.
It is unlikely that the PPP and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the second largest opposition party in the National Assembly, will join hands in the election because of Imran Khan’s policy of not breaking bread with the PPP.
Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim will act as the returning officer for the election and the Election Commission will issue the schedule.
Even after the election of new president before August 8, Zardari can continue until September 8 to complete his five-year term. But he may like to go home earlier and let his successor take over.
The constitution says election to the office of president shall be held not earlier than 60 days and not later than 30 days from the expiry of the term of the incumbent president. Internews
