Bilawal assures Punjab parliamentarians of Zardari's support ahead of presidential poll

With the country all set for the election of a new president, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari assured Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentarians of the support of his father, Asif Ali Zardari, in exchange of their votes for the clear favourite presidential candidate. 

PPP Co-chairman Zardari is poised to become the next president of Pakistan, having the support of all parties in the ruling coalition, against his opponent, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) backed Sunni Ittehad Council’s (SIC) candidate Mahmood Achackzai Achakzai, in tomorrow's presidential poll. 

Speaking to the members of the PML-N-dominated Punjab Assembly, Bilawal said that he was there to ask the parliamentarians to vote for his father in the March 9 presidential election.

“Asif Zardari will take care of you as he takes care of me,” he said while heaping praise on the seasoned politician, who will serve the president’s post for the second time if he wins.

Bilawal, the former foreign minister, said that Zardari "meets everyone like he meets his own party's representatives".

The young politician said that the position of the president is a representative of the Centre — the federal government.

Speaking on the occasion, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz thanked Bilawal, saying that her party lawmakers would have voted for Zardari, who is the jointly agreed candidate of coalition partners, even if the PPP chairman hadn’t asked for it.

Maryam, the first woman chief executive of the province, also said that the PML-N and the PPP were competitors in the general elections but serious parties put aside their differences for the betterment and interest of the country.

“Asif Zardari is our presidential candidate. All of us will vote [for him] tomorrow,” she added.

The presidential elections are slated for March 9 with clear favourite Zardari facing off with Achakzai.

Besides 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) — have declared their support for Zardari.

Meanwhile, PTI-backed SIC and Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen have assured their support to Achakzai, who is the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) head.

Members of the Senate and National Assembly would exercise their right to vote by secret ballot in the Parliament House while polling for the presidential elections would also be held 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 they would abstain from voting in the presidential elections.