Assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto's widower will be a presidential candidate, an official of his party said today, a move that will be controversial if the presidency retains strong powers.
Who will replace Pervez Musharraf, who resigned as president last Monday and whose strongman rule was unpopular with most Pakistanis, is one of a number of issues preoccupying ruling coalition parties as economic and security problems mount.
The Pakistan People's Party, which Asif Ali Zardari leads, said on Friday it wanted him to run in the election for president, by legislators, on September 6th.
"Zardari has accepted the Pakistan People's Party's unanimous drafting of him and he will be the candidate of the Pakistan People's Party," senior party official Mian Raza Rabbani told a news conference.
No other candidate has declared an intention to stand.
The leader of Pakistan's second biggest party, which is in an uneasy coalition with Zardari, declined earlier to comment on Zardari's expected nomination but said the post should be stripped of powers, in particular that to dismiss parliament.
The coalition government led by Bhutto's party has been riven by a dispute over the judiciary with the number two party, led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, threatening to pull out.
Insecurity, uncertainty over the future of the government and economic worries have undermined investor confidence and sent the country's financial markets on a downward spiral.
Pakistan's stocks and currency strengthened when Mr Musharraf stepped down last Monday but have weakened with no end in sight to the infighting between the two main parties.
The rupee set a new low of about 77.15 to the dollar on Friday but ended at 76.10/20. Stocks finished 2.4 per cent lower.
Pakistan's stock market, which rose for six consecutive years to 2007 and was one of the best-performing markets in Asia in that period, has fallen about 29 percent this year.
As the politicians bicker, militant violence has surged.
Troops killed 35 militants in fighting in the Swat Valley northwest of Islamabad today, shortly after a suicide car-bomber killed eight policemen.
On Thursday, two suicide bombers killed about 70 people outside the country's main defence industry complex.
Reuters