Benazir Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari has been nominated to

http://www.truthout.org/article/party-picks-bhutto-widower-pakistan-president

Benazir Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari has been nominated to
succeed Pervez Musharraf as the president of Pakistan. (Photo:
Reuters)
Islamabad, Pakistan - The senior party in Pakistan's governing
coalition on Friday nominated Asif Ali Zardari, widower of former
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, as its candidate in elections for
president, now set for Sept. 6.

The Election Commission on Friday set Sept. 6 as the date
lawmakers will elect a new president, after the resignation earlier
this week of President Pervez Musharraf.

Hours later, members of the Pakistan Peoples Party said that Mr.
Zardari, 53, who is a leader of the party, would be their candidate.

The new president will confront an escalating insurgency by
militants in the country. The announcement of the election date came a
day after twin suicide attacks outside the country's biggest weapons
factory complex, in Wah, 20 miles north of the capital, Islamabad.

The death toll in those attacks rose to 78 on Friday, said Rao
Muhammad Iqbal, the city police chief of Rawalpindi. Mr. Rao said 103
people were wounded in the bombings, the deadliest strike by the
Taliban in the past 18 months.

The Taliban said the bombings were in response to a fierce
Pakistani military operation against militants that has unfolded over
the past two weeks in the tribal region of Bajaur. The insurgents
threatened more suicide attacks if the government continued its
military campaign.

Leaders of the governing coalition met in Islamabad on Friday to
discuss a plan to reinstate judges deposed by Mr. Musharraf during a
state of emergency last November, a move that contributed to his
downfall.

One leading member of the governing coalition, former Prime
Minister Nawaz al-Sharif, the head of Pakistan Muslim League-N, has
threatened to pull out of the coalition if the judges are not
reinstated.

Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, secretary of the Election Commission,
said at a news conference in Islamabad on Friday that nomination
papers will be filed Tuesday and will be considered on Thursday.
Members of Parliament and the four provincial assemblies will vote on
Sept. 6, and the result will be announced on the same day.

The ruling coalition has wavered on the issue of restoration of
the judges, despite showing unity in engineering the ouster of Mr.
Musharraf.

The reinstatement of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry and
other Supreme Court and high court judges fired by Mr. Musharraf was
one of Mr. Sharif's main election promises. On Friday, at a press
briefing in Islamabad, Mr. Sharif said a drafting committee would
finalize a resolution for the reinstatement of the judges over the
weekend and that it would be introduced in Parliament on Monday.

"After debate," he said, "it should be passed on Wednesday and
judges should be restored."

Mr. Sharif said he would not accept the reinstatement of judges if
it did not include Mr. Chaudhry. "Without him, the restoration of the
judiciary will be a joke," he said.

Despite Mr. Sharif's deadline of Wednesday, other members of the
ruling coalition, especially the Pakistan Peoples Party, appeared to
be in no rush.

Mr. Zardari fears that Mr. Chaudhry, if reinstated, might undo an
amnesty agreement that absolved Mr. Zardari of corruption charges. The
amnesty was part of a package arranged by Mr. Musharraf when Mr.
Zardari returned to Pakistan after his wife, Ms. Bhutto, was
assassinated in December.

Some members of the Pakistan Peoples Party said Mr. Sharif's
demands on the judiciary were distracting the government from other
pressing issues as its leaders focused instead on keeping the
fledgling governing coalition together.

"The biggest problem we face is militancy in the North-West
Frontier Province," said Sheik Mansoor Ahmed, a senior Pakistan
Peoples Party official. "There is great resentment in the southwestern
Baluchistan province against the federation. The economy is a
shambles."

"There are far more important issues than the restoration of
judiciary," he said.