ISLAMABAD - Leaders of Pakistan’s ruling coalition met yesterday to discuss a replacement for President Pervez Musharraf, as the deaths of 41 people in Islamist violence underscored the new government’s challenges.
Key US ally Musharraf resigned after nine years in power on Monday amid coalition threats to impeach him, throwing the onus on the alliance to tackle rising extremism and a nosediving economy.
A suicide bomber killed 23 people at a hospital in a northwestern town yesterday in the first attack since Musharraf stepped down, while five soldiers and 13 Taliban died in clashes in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.
“The leaders will discuss the post-Musharraf resignation issues, including the election to the presidency,” said Farhatullah Babar, a spokesman for the party of slain former premier Benazir Bhutto, which leads the coalition.
Local television showed Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister overthrown by Musharraf in a 1999 coup, meeting with Bhutto’s widower Asif Ali Zardari and son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari in Islamabad.
Senate chairman Mohammedmian Soomro, a one-time ally of Musharraf, took over as acting president on Monday and will hold the office until the election of the nuclear-armed nation’s new head of state.
“The election of a new president must take place within 30 days of the post being vacated,” election commission spokesman Kanwar Dilshad told AFP.
Officials say the coalition is considering a candidate from one of Pakistan’s smaller provinces, including Mehmud Khan Achakzai from southwestern Baluchistan province, and Aftab Shoban Mirani from southern Sindh province.
It could also opt for a female candidate including the speaker of the national assembly, or lower house of parliament, Fehmida Mirza, or Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur, the officials added.
The coalition faces a more immediate challenge over Sharif’s demands for it to reinstate dozens of judges sacked by Musharraf during a state of emergency in November in order to push through his re-election as president.
The issue has divided the coalition since they first pledged to reinstate them in May and threatens to split it up for good.
“I think the judges should be restored either today or tomorrow,” Sharif told reporters before leaving to meet Zardari. “It is an issue as important as Musharraf’s resignation.”
Pakistani newspapers on Tuesday hailed Musharraf’s departure — the Daily Times headline screamed “Going, Going, Gone” — but warned that the government must act fast to tackle Pakistan’s problems.
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