By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Parliament will convene a joint session on March 9 to elect a new president, a contest that pits a former leader seeking a new term against a fiery nationalist who has challenged the military’s role in politics.
The speaker of the National Assembly, Ayaz Sadiq, announced the date on Sunday, following the rules of the Presidential Election Act of 1988.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (b) of Rule 9 of the Presidential Election Rules, 1988, the Speaker has been pleased to summon the meeting of the members of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) in the Parliament House, Islamabad, on Saturday the 9th March, 2024, at 10:00 a.m. for the purpose of election to the office of the president of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” a notification by the National Assembly Secretariat read.
The president is elected by an electoral college of lawmakers from the Senate, the National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies. The voting is done by secret ballot.
The main contenders are Asif Ali Zardari, who served as president from 2008 to 2013, and Mehmood Khan Achakzai, the chief of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, a regional party that represents the Pashtun ethnic group in Balochistan province.
Zardari, the co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, is backed by an eight-party coalition led by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which emerged as the second largest bloc in the parliamentary elections held on Feb. 8.
Achakzai, a vocal critic of the military establishment, is supported by the lawmakers of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the party of the jailed former prime minister Imran Khan.
Both candidates submitted their nomination papers on Saturday to the presiding officer, Aamer Farooq, the chief justice of the Islamabad High Court. Three other citizens also filed their papers, but they are likely to be rejected on technical grounds, as they lack the required proposers and seconders from the electoral college.
The Election Commission of Pakistan will scrutinize the nomination papers on Monday and issue the final list of candidates on Tuesday. The commission has appointed five presiding officers to conduct the election in Islamabad and the four provincial capitals.
Achakzai, a member of the National Assembly, delivered a fiery speech on Friday, in which he denounced the military’s interference in politics and demanded Khan’s release.
Zardari, the husband of the slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, is seeking to return to the presidency after completing his first term in 2013. He is widely seen as a pragmatic politician, who managed to keep his relations intact despite facing multiple challenges from the military, the judiciary and the opposition.
The presidency in Pakistan is largely a ceremonial post, as the real power lies with the prime minister.
The current president, Arif Alvi, a close ally of Khan, whose five-year term ended in September 2023, continued to serve as head of state until the next presidential elections. He was elected in 2018, when the PTI had a majority in the electoral college.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
