Pakistan ‘survivor’ Asif Zardari wins presidency, capping tense polls

ISLAMABAD — Veteran politician Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) was voted the country’s president on Saturday, the culmination of an election season marred by allegations of rigging against the allies of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan.

The vote for the largely ceremonial presidency came about a month after Pakistan’s Feb. 8 polls and a week after lawmakers elected Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) as prime minister for the second time. The National Assembly, Senate and the four provincial assemblies form the electoral college for the presidential voting held every five years.

Zardari easily won the post as the PPP, PML-N and their coalition allies had the required numbers. His challenger was Mahmood Khan Achakzai, the chairman of a small provincial party who was nominated by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) — a party that now includes dozens of lawmakers loyal to Imran Khan who ran as independents after his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was essentially barred from contesting the elections.

Zardari, 68, also served as president from 2008 to 2013. He has been a federal minister and a member of the National Assembly as well. He was married to assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and their son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, is chairman of the PPP.

Under Zardari’s watch, the powers of the presidency were reduced in 2010 — removing for example, the president’s ability to arbitrarily dissolve the National Assembly. Experts say his return to the role is significant.

“Zardari’s achievement in his previous tenure was the passing of the 18th Amendment, which empowered the provinces and constitutionally reduced his presidential powers,” said Asma Hyder, professor of economics at the Institute of Business Administration in Karachi. She added that he took steps to improve the welfare of Balochistan, the nation’s least developed province, and other places.

Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center, called Zardari “the ultimate survivor.”

The veteran “has spent time in prison and time as president, and the fact that he’s now back for another term as president is an indication of how he remains a critical powerbroker,” Kugelman told Nikkei Asia before the vote.

Since the general elections did not go as the PML-N and the powerful military establishment expected, analysts say Zardari and the PPP have proven to be shrewd political operators. The PML-N had been widely expected to cruise to victory, in which case its leader and three-time former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif likely would have returned to power. But PTI-backed independent candidates put up a strong fight, forcing the PML-N to form a coalition with the PPP.

Majid Nizami, a political analyst in Lahore, said Zardari “made a good deal with the PML-N, where his party, PPP, will get constitutional positions such as president but will not join the cabinet and not share the burden of tough economic decisions, which [the] PML-N government has to take soon,” he said.

More austerity measures may be required as Pakistan seeks a new deal with the International Monetary Fund, upon which it has been relying to avoid a debt default. The IMF said on Friday that it was open to formulating another program for Pakistan if the new government seeks one, while urging a fair resolution of electoral disputes.

Those disputes are far from over.

Supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), protest over alleged election rigging in Karachi on March 2.   © Reuters

Since Imran Khan was ousted from power in an April 2022 no-confidence vote, the PTI has accused the replacement PML-N coalition government and the military establishment of using various means to undermine the party. This includes imprisoning Khan on corruption and other charges that he denies, and forcing PTI members to run as independents.

Now, at issue are the election results themselves as well as allotments of seats reserved for women and minorities. In the 336-seat National Assembly, there are 70 such reserved seats, which are distributed through a proportional representation system.

PTI-backed independents won the most national seats, and many signed on with the SIC to gain access to the proportional representation seats, as the rules required them to join a party. Yet last Monday, the Election Commission of Pakistan decided that at the SIC will not get these seats and that they should be doled out to other parties, making the PPP and PML-N major beneficiaries.

Predictably, this prompted an outcry, and the Peshawar High Court imposed a stay on the decision until next Wednesday.

Nizami, the political analyst, called the commission’s decision absurd.

“In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the PML-N has won three seats in the National Assembly, and it will get five reserved seats for women, whereas PTI-backed independents have won 39 seats from the province and they will get zero reserved seats,” Nizami said. “The ECP has made a mockery of the law and this decision must be questioned.”

Kugelman said the issue “appears to be the latest case of legal pretexts being used to weaken the political prospects of a party that the state does not want to enjoy any semblance of power,” referring to the PTI.

Moreover, the Election Commission uploaded all Form-45s — the total vote count sheets for each polling station — on its website. PTI members and several political commentators have pointed out what appear to be signs of manual tampering on the forms, implying that the elections were rigged, while the commission denies these charges.

Despite questions about the legitimacy of the polls, many Western governments have congratulated Shehbaz Sharif on becoming prime minister and vowed to work with his government. The “new government is one that the West will be comfortable with,” Kugelman said. “It is led by parties and leaders with which the West is familiar, and is for now calling for good relations with the West.”

But experts see the PTI keeping up the pressure as the opposition — both in the National Assembly and in the streets.

Hyder, the economics professor in Karachi, suggested that prolonged sit-ins and large-scale protests on the roads could be in store. “The PTI did that earlier and can do it again,” she said.

source : nikkei asia