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New Pakistan president 'should be above politics'

ABU DHABI - Overseas Pakistanis residing in the UAE feel that the new president of their country should be a non-controversial person, and who is above party politics and acceptable to the people of all the four provinces in the country.

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At the same time, they expect and hope that given the responsibility, Pakistan People's Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari would live up to the expectations of the people.

Many of the Pakistanis, who spoke with Khaleej Times, praised Zardari's political achievements in the past six months, specially his role in forcing Pervez Musharraf to resign without going through the long and tedious process of impeachment.

However, some of them referred to the corruption allegations against Zardari and pointed out that he had not yet restored the deposed judges as promised during the election campaign and agreed upon in agreements with coalition partners after the elections.

In the view of Farzana Sahab Mirza, poetess and writer, Pakistan's new president should be from among the common people because the old and tested politicians had been a failure. Since Pakistan is facing a host of problems, specially the poor, she hopes that maybe Zardari could do something better for the country. “Maybe he has a plan which he would implement after occupying the top position,' she hoped.

Sharafat Ali Shah, an actor and presenter, agreed with Farzana that the president should be an 'awami' person (from among the people).

He said that the president should be non-controversial, with an impeccable character and free of any sort of allegations. The president should be transparent, and not belong to any political party, he added. Moreover, the president should be a patriot and a nationalist.

Sharafat, however, pointed out that Zardari does not fit the bill.

Zardari's nomination was strongly supported by PPP supporters.

Rashid Chughtai, party's president in Dubai, was confident that Zardari will be the next president of Pakistan.

'Zardari's becoming the president will be good for Pakistan because both the president and prime minister will be from the same party. This means that there will be proper communication between them and there won't be any conflict or conspiracy,' he opined.

This will enhance the image of Pakistan, he said, stressing that all political parties should support Zardari.

Another strong PPP man, Mian Munir Hans, said that there was no person better than Zardari in the country.

'He has achieved so much in such a short time. He has formed the coalition government by bringing together all major parties from all over Pakistan and is taking them along together. He has compelled Musharraf to resign. The PPP is a representative party of the four provinces and the country's president should be from it,' Hans asserted

As expected, Choudhry Mohammad Altaf, UAE President of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz Group), said his party had clearly stated that the deposed judges should be restored, before considering to support to Zardari.

'The delay in their restoration is causing problems and the success in the February 18 elections is not being utilised to the peoples' benefit,' he said, adding that Nawaz Sharif has taken the right stand on the restoration of judges.

He quoted the recent Gallup polls which, he said, showed that the PML (N) enjoyed 80 to 85 per cent popularity among the people of Pakistan.

The PPP is harming itself by not restoring the judges and if elections are held again, the PML (N) would have a sweeping victory, he declared confidently.

• UAE