Islamabad - Pakistan's president-elect Asif Ali Zardari is
to be sworn in early next week amid hopes that his rise could bring
stability to the crisis-ridden nation, a senior official said Sunday.
'The oath-taking ceremony will take place on Tuesday,' Information
Minister Sherry Rehman told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Zardari secured 481 of the 702 electoral votes in Saturday's
presidential elections, placing him far ahead of his rivals - former
Supreme Court chief justice Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui and veteran
politician Mushahid Hussain Sayed, who got 153 and 44 votes,
respectively.
Zardari, the widower of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto and
her successor as chief of the Pakistan People's Party, called his
overnight win 'a victory for democracy.'
That victory now confronts him with a host of challenges.
Diplomatically, Pakistan's relations with the United States are
strained because of cross-border militant attacks on international
forces in Afghanistan, and the subsequent US strikes inside Pakistani
territory on al-Qaeda and Taliban targets.
The US has officially welcomed Zardari's election with Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice saying that 'now with the new president, I
think we have got a good way forward.'
The US has expressed willingness to help Pakistan upgrade its
security apparatus to fight Islamic militants in the volatile
north-western tribal regions along the Afghan frontier.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso greeted
Zardari's election by saying, 'I trust that under your presidency the
government will implement appropriate policies to meet the important
economic and security challenges the country is currently facing.'
Pakistan is facing massive inflation, currency devaluation and
its foreign reserves have been falling at a rate of around 800
million dollars a month since last October.
According to the International Monetary Fund, Pakistan requires
substantial external financing to save its economy and depleting
foreign-currency reserves, which according to the official figures
now hover just over 9 billion dollars.
During his race to the presidency, Zardari lost his major ally,
former premier Nawaz Sharif, whose Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz
(PML-N) pulled out of the coalition last month over differences
regarding the reinstatement of judges deposed by ousted president
Pervez Musharraf. Sharif also demanded that presidential powers be
curtailed, including the power to dissolve parliament, but Zardari
refused to limit his eventual presidency.
Though the PML-N opted to sit on the opposition benches, it says
it will not destabilize the PPP-led government.
'Asif Ali Zardar's election is the victory for democracy,' Sharif
conceded in a statement. But party officials said they expected the
new president to honour his pledges to reinstate the judges and annul
amendments made in the constitution by Musharraf.
'It is his test now whether he abides by his commitment. And if he
does not, he will further lose his credibility,' said Siddiqul
Farooq, a PML-N spokesman.
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