LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, in a bid to win over Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MPs ahead of the presidential election, has assured that his father Asif Ali Zardari, who is set to become the next president of Pakistan, will take care of the Punjab legislature as much as he about him.
With the ruling coalition on the same page regarding Zardari as a common candidate, the presidential election is expected to be held in the rallies tomorrow (Saturday).
Speaking to members of the PML-N-dominated Punjab Assembly, Bilawal said he was there to ask MPs to vote for his father in the March 9 presidential election.
“Asif Zardari will take care of you as he took care of me,” he said, praising the veteran politician who, if he wins, will hold the presidency for a second time.
Bilawal, a former foreign minister, said Zardari “meets everyone as he meets representatives of his own party”.
The young politician said that the position of the President is the representative of the Center — the federal government.
Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz thanked Bilawal on the occasion and said her party lawmakers would have voted for Zardari, who is the jointly agreed candidate of the coalition partners, even if the PPP chairman had not asked for it.
Maryam, the first woman Chief Executive of the province, also said that PML-N and PPP were competitors in the general elections but the serious parties put aside their differences for the betterment and interest of the country.
“Asif Zardari is our presidential candidate. We will all vote for him tomorrow,” she added.
Presidential elections are scheduled for March 9, with clear favorite Zardari pitted against Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC)-backed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate Mahmood Achackzai Achakzai.
Apart from the two key coalition partners — Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP), National Party (NP), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P ) — expressed their support for Zardari.
Meanwhile, the PTI-backed SIC and Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen have assured their support to Achakzai, who heads the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP).
Members of the Senate and National Assembly would exercise their right to vote by secret ballot in the House of Parliament, while voting for the presidential election would also take place in the four provincial assemblies.
As many as 325 members of the National Assembly, 91 senators, 354 members of the Punjab Assembly, 157 members of the Sindh Assembly, 117 members of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly and 65 members of the Balochistan Assembly would cast their vote.
Meanwhile, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Akhtar Mengal of Balochistan National Party (BNP-M) have announced that they will abstain from voting in the presidential election.
