Pakistan PM's Candidate Sweeps Presidential Vote
January 1, 1998 - 0:0
ISLAMABAD Muhammad Rafiq Tarar, the nominee of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, was elected president of Pakistan on Wednesday by an overwhelming majority, election commission officials said. Tarar secured 245 out of 298 votes from members of the Federal Parliament in Islamabad, chief election commissioner Abdul Qadeer Chaudhry said. His main challenger, Aftab Shabaan Mirani of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's opposition Pakistan People's Party (PPP), polled just 39 votes.
The 476-member electoral college is made up of lawmakers from the Federal Parliament and provincial assemblies in Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province. Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani, a nominee of the fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) Party, got seven votes while Haleem Siddiqui, like Tarar a candidate of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), secured two votes, the commission said.
Seven votes were rejected in Islamabad. Tarar, 68, also led strongly in Bhutto's home province southern Sindh, Central Punjab, North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, they said. The election was called after President Farooq Ahmed Leghari stepped down on December 2 over his differences with Sharif. But there was still uncertainty over Tarar's position after a court decided at the last minute to let him contest the poll pending a final verdict on his outstanding writ against pre-poll rejection of his nomination paper.
Tarar's candidacy was rejected December 18 by then acting election commissioner, Justice Mukhtar Ahmed Junejo, over accusations that he had committed contempt of court. If the three-judge bench of the Lahore High Court, which is hearing the case, finds him guilty of contempt against the judiciary, new elections will have to be held. Junejo was replaced on December 29 when the government appointed retired supreme court judge Abdul Qadeer Chaudhry as permanent chief election commissioner.
Tarar, a family friend of Sharif, is the ninth president in the country's 50-year history. Though heavily outnumbered Bhutto's party decided to stay in the race for a symbolic fight, observers said. Her party also refused to put its weight behind Shirani of Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI), party sources said. Leghari's resignation came at the end of a bitter three-month tussle between Sharif's government and the judiciary headed then by Sajjad Ali Shah. (AFP)
The 476-member electoral college is made up of lawmakers from the Federal Parliament and provincial assemblies in Sindh, Punjab, Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province. Maulana Muhammad Khan Shirani, a nominee of the fundamentalist Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI) Party, got seven votes while Haleem Siddiqui, like Tarar a candidate of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML), secured two votes, the commission said.
Seven votes were rejected in Islamabad. Tarar, 68, also led strongly in Bhutto's home province southern Sindh, Central Punjab, North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan, they said. The election was called after President Farooq Ahmed Leghari stepped down on December 2 over his differences with Sharif. But there was still uncertainty over Tarar's position after a court decided at the last minute to let him contest the poll pending a final verdict on his outstanding writ against pre-poll rejection of his nomination paper.
Tarar's candidacy was rejected December 18 by then acting election commissioner, Justice Mukhtar Ahmed Junejo, over accusations that he had committed contempt of court. If the three-judge bench of the Lahore High Court, which is hearing the case, finds him guilty of contempt against the judiciary, new elections will have to be held. Junejo was replaced on December 29 when the government appointed retired supreme court judge Abdul Qadeer Chaudhry as permanent chief election commissioner.
Tarar, a family friend of Sharif, is the ninth president in the country's 50-year history. Though heavily outnumbered Bhutto's party decided to stay in the race for a symbolic fight, observers said. Her party also refused to put its weight behind Shirani of Jamiat Ulema Islam (JUI), party sources said. Leghari's resignation came at the end of a bitter three-month tussle between Sharif's government and the judiciary headed then by Sajjad Ali Shah. (AFP)