Pakistan

Three-sided fight for presidency next week

Article published on the 2008-08-31 Latest update 2008-08-31 14:12 TU

Asif Ali Zardari in front of a picture of his wife
(Photo: AFP)

Three candidates will stand in Pakistan's presidential election to be held next week, the Election Commission announced on Saturday. The successor to former army chief Pervez Musharraf will be picked by about 700 members of the provincial and national parliaments. The largest party, the People's Party (PPP), is standing Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated leader Benazir Bhutto.

The PPP has the largest number of members of the National Assembly and two of the four provincial bodies.

But that hasn't deterred the Muslim League of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (PML-N) from standing retired chief judge Saeed uz Zaman Siddiqui. The party has split from the ruling coalition over the PPP's failure to reinstate judges sacked by Musharraf last year.

The party which split from Sharif to back Musharraf, the PML-Q, is standing former government official and journalist, Mushahid Hussein. Musharraf resigned on 18 August after the PML-N and the PPP threatened to impeach him.

Zardari is returning to politics after accompanying his wife back to Pakistan from exile. Before that he spent 11 years in jail on corruption and other criminal charges. On Tuesday Swiss prosecutors shelved  charges of money-laundering against him for lack of proof and unfroze bank accounts holding  40 million euros.