Businessman Mamnoon Hussain, who was born and initially reared in the historic city of Agra, and a close aide of Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif, was elected as the 12th president of the Islamic nation in a one-sided election as he had lone opponent who was a political nobody.The election became easier after the main opposition Pakistan Peoples Party boycotted the poll protesting change of poll dates from August 6 to July 30 on court directions.
The 73-year-old Hussain will be sworn in on September 9 when the incumbent Asif Ali Zardari steps down at the end of his five-year term.Hussain emerged as a clear winner in the contest with ex-judge Wajihuddin Ahmed of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party.The Pakistan Peoples Party had withdrawn its candidate Raza Rabbani and boycotted the election protesting change of poll dates from August 6 to July 30 on Supreme Court's directions.
Lawmakers from both houses of the national parliament and four provincial assemblies voted in the two-man race for the top post.According to the election commission, Hussian got 432 votes, while Ahmed got 77 of the total 887 polled votes. At least nine ballots were declared invalid as they were wrongly marked by the voters.More than 1,100 national and provincial lawmakers were eligible to participate in the polls but some of them were absent while those associated with PPP stayed away due to their boycott
Born in the historic city of Agra, Hussain, who belongs to an Urdu-speaking ethnic group that migrated from India during the Partition, was the candidate of ruling PML-N government.Hussain, who will be president for five years, resigned his membership of the PML-N soon after the election results were announced.The office of the president is ceremonial in Pakistan but he is still the constitutional chief of the armed forces but cannot order deployments. He also appoints the services chiefs at the recommendation of the prime minister.
Pakistan so far had 11 presidents, out of which five were military generals. Four of them seized powers through coups, whereas first president Major Sikandar Mirza was elected in 1956 after the first constitution was adopted.The former Sindh governor Hussain is an old loyalist of Nawaz Sharif and remained with the PML-N during the regime of former military ruler Musharraf.He served as the governor of Sindh from June to October 1999 and lost the post after the then Musharraf toppled the PML-N government in a military coup in October 1999.
