Islamabad: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari was Saturday elected the country's 13th president with a big majority, defeating his two rivals from two Pakistan Muslim League (PML) factions and emerging as the first civilian head of the state.

According to the results available with the PPP secretariat here, Zardari got 490 votes out of the 702 votes from the national and provincial legislatures while his rival from PML-Nawaz, Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, received 151 votes and Mushahid Hussain Syed, the candidate of the Quaid faction of PML that was created by former military dictator Pervez Musharraf, could get only 41 votes.

Ten votes in the national parliament and as many in the provincial assemblies were declared invalid.

Zardari, 50, is widower of assassinated PPP chief and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and belongs to a business family of Sindh.

 

Source : IANS