Zardari elected Pak President

Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and a controversial politician with little experience in governing...

Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of the slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and a controversial politician with little experience in governing, was elected president of Pakistan on Saturday. Results from voting in the two houses of Parliament, and three of four provincial assemblies, showed Zardari had easily prevailed over his competitor.

The results were announced by Chief Election Commissioner Qazi Muhammed Farooq. The votes from a fourth provincial assembly remained to be counted. Zardari, 53, who spent 11 years in jail on corruption charges that were not proven, succeeds Pervez Musharraf, who resigned as president last month under the threat of impeachment.

The elevation of Zardari to the presidency, where he will have great powers, including the ability to dissolve Parliament and name the head of the Pakistani Army, comes with the tacit approval of the US. Zardari has promised a tougher fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda extremists ensconced in the nation8217;s tribal areas, from which they mount assaults on American and NATO troops fighting in Afghanistan. His election coincides with a stepped-up effort by the US to root out the Taliban and al Qaeda from the tribal areas. American commandos mounted a raid into South Waziristan on Wednesday against Taliban forces, the first of what US military officials said could be a continuing campaign.

After Bhutto8217;s assassination, Zardari had assumed the leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party, the biggest in Pakistan. He led the party to victory in a parliamentary election February 18 and formed a coalition with Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the second-largest party, the Pakistan Muslim League-N.

That coalition collapsed last month amid recriminations over the reinstatement of some 60 judges who had been fired by President Musharraf when he imposed emergency rule last November.

The unofficial vote final count was 479 votes for Zardari, 153 votes for Saeeduz Zaman Siddiquia former judge, nominated by Sharif, and 43 for Mushahid Hussain Sayed, a senior official of the party that backed Musharraf. The electoral college consisted of the two chambers of the Parliament and four provincial assemblies.

The minister of information, Sherry Rehman, who is a senior member of the Pakistan Peoples Party, said the relationship between the presidency and the Parliament would be better balanced under Zardari, resulting in a 8220;new era of democratic stability.8221;

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8220;Today, every Pakistani can raise his head with pride,8221; Rehman said.