Mamnoon Hussain, who was elected yesterday as the 12th president of Pakistan, to succeed deeply unpopular head of state Asif Ali Zardari, whose five-year term expires in September.
ISLAMABAD: Mamnoon Hussain, a veteran Pakistani politician and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s trusted ally, was elected president yesterday in a vote by legislators for the largely ceremonial post of head of state.
Hussain, 73, will be sworn in on September 9 at the presidential palace due to be vacated by incumbent Asif Ali Zardari, who is stepping down at the end of his five-year term.
The new president was elected by an electoral college made up of members of the two houses of parliament and assemblies in Pakistan’s four provinces.
Given its dominance in parliament, Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party was guaranteed a walkover even before the main opposition party, the Pakistan People’s Party, announced it was boycotting the vote, complaining that the vote was brought forward from August 6.
Hussain won easily in the provinces of Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan and got 41 out of 110 votes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He won 277 out of 311 votes in the upper and lower houses of parliament to secure a total of 432 votes. His only rival, Wajihuddin Ahmed, won 77 votes, Fakhruddin Ebrahim, head of the election commission, announced live on television.
Hussain, who will be president for five years, resigned his membership of the PML-N soon after the election results were announced, in what is seen as a symbolic move to establish himself as a non-partisan
president.
The soft-spoken 73-year-old with a quiet smile has been an active member of the PML-N since the 1960s. He was governor of the southern province of Sindh from June to October 1999 when Sharif’s government was overthrown by the then army commander, General Pervez Musharraf.
Hussain, who comes from the financial capital Karachi, gives the southern province Sindh at least a token stake in the central government otherwise dominated by Sharif’s Punjab power base.
His background in textiles and as an ex-president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry also reflects the government’s number one task of reviving the stagnant economy.
Other analysts stress that his status as a long-serving but low-profile member of PML-N party makes him totally dependent on the prime minister.
Hussain’s low profile is expected to provide a stark contrast to Zardari, considered a sharp political operator behind the scenes.
Born in India before the partition of the subcontinent, he and his family migrated to Karachi along with hundreds of thousands of other Muslims from across the border.
On the eve of the election, Hussain told PML-N supporters in the capital Islamabad that the presidency was a symbol of the federation of Pakistan, and vowed to serve the country and its people.
“He had no political affiliation until 1999 but his polite discourse and professional ability impressed Nawaz Sharif, who made him governor of Sindh,” said Azhar Haroon, current president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
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