ISLAMABAD: With the departure of President Asif Ali Zardari now just a matter of time, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will have to choose the man (or woman) who will now occupy the presidency.
With its comfortable win in the May elections, the PML-N enjoys the numbers to unilaterally choose the next president — without any allies or outside support. However, it is still not clear who will be Sharif’s choice even though the election is slated to be held in less than three weeks from now, on August 6.
The prime minister and his party have not said much about the issue. Hence, the names that are doing the rounds are far from confirmed. However, some assumptions can be made to narrow down the possible choices confronting the prime minister.
To begin with, analysts are of the view that the generous allocation of cabinet slots to PML-N favourites from Lahore as well as other parts of Punjab, the post of the president will go to someone from a smaller province.
Having given the speakership of the National Assembly to a Punjabi lawmaker from Lahore and Sharif’s decision to keep the premiership with himself, it is only politically feasible that the president’s slot be filled by a non-Punjabi. One of the prominent hopefuls is Sartaj Aziz, a resident of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, who at present is serving as adviser to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs. Internews
