Getting a new president

The third candidate, Saeeduz Zaman Siddique, a former judge, again doesn’t match up to the calibre of Musharraf and Zardari. He is not a public figure, which means most of the public is not even familiar with his face even though he was once Chief Justice. Secondly, apart from his judicial past, he doesn’t boast any political background.

There was a time when our President used to be just a figurehead. We remember Rafique Tarar, a PML(N) president, and Saeeduz Zaman maybe looks similar to him. But since the last nine years, the President was not just a face; he was THE man in the country. THE man, who had the power to rule the country alone, who had the power to make all the decisions in the country, who had the power to be a leader to the 160 million population of Pakistan, and who had the power to dissolve the National Assembly.

If Zardari becomes President, it would not be possible to expect him to be just a figurehead. He is a popular man, he was the husband of a two-time Prime Minister of the country. He is the son-in-law of one of the strongest political figures that ever lived in the country. And now he is the Co-Chairman of Pakistan’s most popular political party, which also happens to be the ruling party, in Government right now.