By NNN-Xinhua,
Islamabad : The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) announced Saturday that its co-Chairman and widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto Asif Ali Zardari would run for presidency, according to private DAWN NEWS TV channel.
Addressing a news conference here, PPP leader Raza Rabbani said that Zardari had agreed to be PPP’s presidential candidate and runfor president election on Sept. 6.
Rabbani said the PPP had informed the leaders of the coalition about the nomination.
The Central Executive Committee meeting of the PPP unanimously nominated Zardari as their candidate for the office of the country’ s President on Friday. They also authorized Zardari to nominate a candidate if he was not willing to run for the slot of president.
Local TV channel quoted Zardari as saying that he was not interested in running for any post and he would make a final decision in this regard.
Nawaz Sharif, former Pakistani Prime Minister and chief of the junior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in the coalition said Monday that his party would not support Zardari as the presidential candidate unless the deposed judges were restored on Monday.
Some 60 judges were sacked on Nov. 3 when former President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency.
The PML-N has been calling for the restoration of deposed judges but it failed to reach a consensus with the PPP.
The PML-N pulled its ministers out of the cabinet in May when several rounds of talks aiming at restoring the judges failed at the end of April.
Musharraf Monday resigned as Pakistani President for the sake of “national interest.”
According to an announcement made by the Election Commission of Pakistan, the presidential election will be held on Sept. 6.