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Governing Coalition Collapses in Pakistan
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The general secretary of Musharraf's party, Mushahid Hussain, announced Monday that he would also run for the presidency. Hussain, a former journalist educated at Georgetown University who chairs the Pakistani Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations, challenged Zardari to a televised debate hours after the coalition split was announced.
"Let people see the differences between the two of us," Hussain said. "Corruption and integrity is at issue, and we don't want to revert to the politics of corruption."
Sharif and Zardari called for Musharraf's impeachment on Aug. 7, effectively forcing him from power. United in their opposition to Musharraf, the two politicians nonetheless failed to agree on when and how to restore 60 judges fired by Musharraf. Sharp divisions between Sharif and Zardari emerged within days of Musharraf's resignation when Sharif vowed last week to quit the coalition if the judges were not restored by a parliamentary measure on Monday.
At the center of the split is the status of Pakistan's deposed Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. Chaudhry became an opposition symbol after Musharraf suspended and then fired him last year. Since then he has become the public face of a powerful movement led by thousands of lawyers.
Currently, Zardari's Pakistan People's Party holds the largest share of seats in the lower house of Parliament and in at least two provincial assemblies. But a last-minute shift in alliances could frustrate Zardari's efforts to come to power eight months after his wife's assassination.
The winning candidate needs 352 votes out of 702 combined votes in the National Assembly, Senate and four provincial assemblies of Pakistan to take the presidency.
Under Musharraf's rule, Parliament granted the presidency sweeping powers through a series of constitutional amendments. Zardari has said his party would work to strike that amendment from the constitution, which would effectively return executive power to the prime minister.
