Voting underway to elect 12th President of Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Polling to elect the new head of state is underway in the Senate, National Assembly and four provincial assemblies through secret ballot. PML-N’s Mamnoon Hussain and PTI’s Justice ...
July 30, 2013
Voting began at 10:00 am (0500 GMT) and will last until 3:00 pm today, with the result expected to be announced late on Tuesday.
The president elect will take oath when the tenure of outgoing President Asif Ali Zardari expires on September 8.
According to reports, PML-N’s Abdul Sattar was the first person to cast his vote in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in Peshawar.
Pakistan People's Party (PPP) has boycotted the election, complaining it was not consulted on bringing the date forward from August 6, and its absence means Sharif's candidate is certain to win.
President is elected by the members of four provincial assemblies, and both houses of parliament.
Candidate Profiles
Mamnoon Hussain
Mamnoon Hussain is the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) candidate for the presidential election.
Hussain received his MBA from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) and originally hails from Agra (India).
Mamnoon Hussain owns a textile business in Karachi and has contracts with wealthy industrialists and entrepreneurs. He was elected as the president of the Karachi Chamber and has influence in a set of Karachi based businessmen.
Hussain has been actively involved with the PML-N since 1993 when the party was in the opposition. He was appointed as the governor of Sindh by Nawaz Sharif in 1999 to serve in this position for less than six months. He has also worked as advisor to the provincial Chief Minister Liaqat Ali Jatoi.
His support for Nawaz Sharif did not falter after the promulgation of military rule in October 1999.
From 1993, Mamnoon Hussain has held different positions in the Sindh branch of the PML-N. However, he would leave the PML-N post after he is elected president.
Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed
Justice (retd) Wajihuddin Ahmed is the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate for the presidential election.
The former Supreme Court judge was born on December 1, 1938 in New Delhi (India). He attained his BA in Liberal Arts in 1962 from Forman Christian College and his LLB from Sindh Muslim College in 1966. Justice (retd) Wajihuddin was awarded a JD degree by Karachi University in 1971.
In 1977 and 1978, Wajih was elected as the President of the Sind High Court and also served as the President of the Karachi Bar Association in 1981. In 1999 in opposition to martial law, Wajih refused to take oath as the Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court after serving in the position for a brief tenure. He was later elevated to the Supreme Court and resigned from the position in 2001 over signing under the PCO.
A prominent member of the lawyers’ movement, Wajih unsuccessfully ran for the presidential election in 2007 against President General (retd) Pervez Musharraf.
