Asif Ali Zardari elected new President of Pakistan

Pakistan People’s Party Co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari was elected as the next President of Pakistan after securing majority of votes in the presidential elections held here on Saturday.

Asif Ali Zardari is Pakistan's 11th President since 1956, when the country became a republic, excluding acting presidents.

According to the unofficial result out of 702 Asif Ali Zardari secured 479 votes, of which he got 281 from Parliament, 22 from Punjab, 6 from Sindh, 59 from Balochistan and 56 from NWFP.

Justice retired Saeeduzaman Siddique got 153 and Mushahid Hussain got 43 votes.

In the Parliament Zardari secured 281 votes, 111 by Justice (Retd) Saeeduzaman Siddique and 34 by Mushahid Hussain Sayed, out of 436 total votes, of which ten were declared invalid.

Asif Ali Zardari secured 123 in Punjab Assembly, 162 in Sindh Assembly, 107 in NWFP, and 59 in Balochistan Assembly.

His rival Justice (Retd) Saeeduzaman Siddique got 201 votes in Punjab Assembly, none from Sindh, 10 from NWFP and 2 from Balochistan Assembly.

Mushahid Hussain got 36 from Punjab Assembly, none from Sindh, 3 from NWFP and 2 from Balochistan Assembly.

The PML-N candidate Justice (Retd.) Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui outshone in Punjab assembly with 201 votes, followed by Asif Ali Zardari securing 123 votes while Mushahid Hussain Syed could muster support of only 36 members.

Zardari bagged 100 percent votes from his native Province’s Sindh Assembly; he bagged 162 votes out of 163 cast in the house of 166 with one vote declared invalid. The result was announced by Presiding Officer, Chief Justice Sindh High Court, Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali immediately after the counting was over. In the house of 166, not a single vote was cast in favor of any of the other two presidential candidates Mushahid Hussain Sayed and Justice (Retd.) Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui.

Asif Zardari emerged victorious in the Balochistan Assembly by securing 59 out of the 63 votes polled for the presidential election. The other candidates for the post, Justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui of PML-N and Mushahid Hussain Sayed of PML-Q got 2 votes each.

The result was announced by the Presiding Officer, Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court Justice Amanullah Yasinzai after counting of votes. Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind and Tariq Hussain Masoori abstained.

In the NWFP Assembly, Asif Zardari secured record 107 votes out of a total of 124 votes polled. Justice ® Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui of PML-N grabbed 10 votes while Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed of PML-Q obtained only three votes. While four votes were declared invalid as it were wrongly marked. Presiding Officer Tariq Pervez, Chief Justice of Peshawar High Court declared the unofficial results after counting of the votes.

Earlier, The voting process was held through a secret ballot by the two chambers of the national parliament, the National Assembly and Senate and the four provincial assemblies.

Chief Election Commissioner, Justice (Retd.) Qazi Muhammad Farooq conducted the proceedings as Returning Officer for election to the Office of the President. At the Parliament House, members from both the Houses, Senate and National Assembly, cast their votes to elect the President, being the Electoral College for Presidential election.

Security has been beefed up across Pakistan and additional contingents of security forces were deployed in major cities.

Pakistani Student Snubs U.S. Ambassador, Payback For Attack

A Pakistani student, Mr. Samad Khurram, today has done what the Pakistani government is afraid to do so far: Snub the U.S. ambassador in the Pakistani capital for the cowardly U.S. attack against our military on the border with Afghanistan.

Samad, a student of law at Harvard University, was in Islamabad to receive a shield of achievement from Anne Patterson, the U.S. ambassador.

But instead of sucking up to the U.S. ambassador, like many Pakistani officials choose to do, Samad had on his mind the blood of over 30 Pakistanis, half of them soldiers, who were killed on the soil of their homeland on June 10 when the Americans sided with Karzai thugs, also known as the 'Afghan national army', and used massive air power to target a peaceful Pakistani border post.

Ms. Patterson was attending a special ceremony organized at the National Arts Gallery by a privately owned Pakistani school. The school had invited 188 of its former students who received scholarships to study at various American colleges and universities. Parents of the students were present, along with Mrs. Zahida Kiayni, the wife of the Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani.

Ms. Patterson and other U.S. embassy officials were shocked and embarrassed when Samad walked to the stage to receive his award but then announced he was refusing the honor to protest the unprovoked American violation of Pakistani airspace and the murder of innocent Pakistanis.

A shaken Ms. Patterson smiled sheepishly and tried to make the best out of an embarrassing moment.

According to the Associated Press of Pakistan, the official news agency, this is how the U.S. ambassador responded:

"The American ambassador, responding to the protest of the student, said America has deep regrets on the incident."

She said

America is proud to have him (Samad Khurram) in USA for study,

adding,

"The only way to remove the misunderstanding is to exchange ideas and views."

Ms. Patterson had a point there. We need to put our position out to the Americans in a clear way. Samad did just that. He did not boycott the ceremony. He attended it and made sure he rebuked the U.S. ambassador in the full glare of the media.

The unfortunate part is that no one present in the huge hall of NCA joined this nationalist young Pakistani in his gesture. At the very least, Pakistanis present in the hall should have given him a standing ovation

The other unfortunate part is that none of the 80 or so Pakistani news channels highlighted the incident. Why did we allow private Pakistani channels in the first place? Wasn't it to project Pakistani position to the world? If this was the Indian media, if this was the Chinese media, if this was the Iranian media, if this was the Arab media, if this was Turkish media, this incident would have been repeated at the top of every news bulletin for the day.

I hope some of the defeatist 'liberal' Pakistanis working for television news channels might be reading this. If you know someone there, please admonish them.

It is sad that ordinary Pakistanis will always be more nationalist and patriotic than their so-called 'liberal' intellectuals and their non-intellectual politicians

But Samad Khurram, no matter what, we are proud of you.

I urge my fellow nationalist Pakistanis to email Samad and congratulate him. His email is samadkhurram@gmail.com