IndiaSphere

Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) candidate, is now president after a comfortable election victory in which he won 481 votes out of 702. The president is not directly elected, but chosen by a combination of the National Assembly (342 votes), provincial assemblies (65 votes for each of the four assemblies) and the Senate (100). Mr. Zardari won a majority in three of the four provinces, but only picked up a third of the votes in the Punjab, Pakistan’s richest province and stronghold of the rival PML-N party, led by Nawaz Sharif. The Punjab is also the province which supplies many of Pakistan’s officer class.
Today in the Daily Telegraph, Ahmed Rashid has a good piece on Mr. Zaradari: Read full story