ISLAMABAD- The widower of assassinated former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto will be a candidate for president, an official of his party said on Saturday.

The question of who will replace Pervez Musharraf, who resigned as president last Monday, is one of a number of issues preoccupying ruling coalition parties as economic and security problems mount.

The Pakistan People's Party, which Asif Ali Zardari leads, said on Friday it wanted him to run in the election by legislators on September 6.

"Asif Ali Zardari has accepted the Pakistan People's Party's unanimous drafting of him and he will be the candidate of the Pakistan People's Party for the office of president," senior party official Mian Raza Rabbani told a news conference.

No other candidate has declared an intention to stand

The coalition government led by Bhutto's party has been riven by a dispute over the judiciary with the second biggest party in the alliance threatening to pull out.

Insecurity, uncertainty over the future of the government and economic worries have undermined investor confidence and sent the country's financial markets on a downward spiral.

Pakistan's stocks and currency strengthened when Musharraf stepped down last Monday but have weakened with no end in sight to the infighting between the two main coalition parties.

The rupee set a new low of about 77.15 to the dollar on Friday but ended at 76.1020. Stocks finished 2.4 percent lower.

Pakistan's stock market, which rose for six consecutive years to 2007,and was one of the best-performing markets in Asia in that period, has fallen about 29 percent this year.

As the politicians bicker, militant violence has surged.

Troops killed 35 militants in fighting in the Swat Valley northwest of Islamabad on Saturday, shortly after a suicide car-bomber killed eight policemen. On Thursday, two suicide bombers killed about 70 people outside the country's main defence industry complex.
Source : Reuters