Legal challenges mar presidential race between Zardari and Achakzai

Legal challenges mar presidential race between Zardari and Achakzai

By Staff Reporter

ISLAMABAD: Legislative houses are set to elect the 14th president on Saturday, in a contest that has been marred by legal disputes and political wrangling over the composition of the electoral college.

The two main contenders for the largely ceremonial post are Asif Ali Zardari, the former president and co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and Mahmood Khan Achakzai, the leader of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) and the nominee of a coalition of opposition parties led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The president is elected by a secret ballot of the members of the Senate, the National Assembly, and the four provincial assemblies. A joint session of the parliament will be held in Islamabad, while the provincial assemblies will hold their sessions in their respective capitals.

The voting is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. local time and the results are expected to be announced by the evening.

Zardari, who served as president from 2008 to 2013, is widely seen as the front-runner, having secured the support of the coalition partner, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and several smaller parties.

He has campaigned on his experience and his role in strengthening democracy and civilian rule in the country.

Achakzai, a veteran politician and a vocal advocate for the rights of the ethnic Pashtuns and a bitter critic of the military’s political role, is backed by the former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tahreek e Insaf party, and some nationalist and independent lawmakers.

The presidential election has been overshadowed by a controversy over the allocation of reserved seats for women and minorities in the National Assembly and the provincial legislatures.

Khan’s backed lawmakers, who had joined Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) after winning seats as independents, were denied the right to claim reserved seats for women and minorities in the parliament.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said the SIC had failed to submit a priority list for the reserved seats before the deadline, which was a “mandatory” requirement.

The PTI lawmakers had contested the elections as independent candidates after losing their party symbol in a court case on flawed internal polls.

 The PTI had then joined hands with the SIC, which had a valid party symbol, to overcome the legal hurdle. However, the ECP rejected this arrangement as well, prompting the PTI to seek a stay order from the Peshawar High Court, which granted it on Friday.

The ECP, however, proceeded with the oath-taking of the lawmakers on the reserved seats, except for eight from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where the PTI has a majority.

Achakzai, in a letter to the ECP on Friday, demanded that the presidential election be postponed until the issue of the reserved seats was resolved.

He argued that the electoral college was incomplete and that holding the election would be unconstitutional and unfair.

“Without completion of electoral college i.e. election on the reserved seats, issuance of election schedule or holding of election to the office of the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan would be illegal, unlawful and against the spirit of Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” he said in the letter.
“Under the above circumstances…  it is submitted that the proposed election to the office of the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is clearly impossible, therefore the same may kindly be postponed or delayed till completion of the electoral college accordingly in the best interest of justice, fair play, and equity.”

Achakzai also proposed the formation of a parliamentary committee, comprising senior members from all parties, to address the grievances of the PTI and other parties regarding the elections and the seats.

“I request everybody, those who are concerned, please have mercy on the country,” Achakzai said. “We are the people who must govern this country; I sent a letter to Ayaz Sadiq [the speaker of the National Assembly] … you still have time; this assembly cannot be run like this.”

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