Click to play videoIslamabad: PML-N leader, Nawaz Sharif, has put up his own candidate for the presidential elections in Pakistan - former chief justice, Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui.
PML-N leader, Chaudhary Nisar says, "I believe there is no better candidate for the presidential slot in Pakistan than retired chief justice. He sacrificed three years of his service by not taking an oath under the PCO of General Musharraf."
Whoever wins will hold vast powers - to dissolve Parliament, sack the Prime Minister and to appoint the Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force.
According to Kamran Yousaf of Dawn News PPP co-chairman, Asif Ali Zardari - who is PPP's candidate for the president's post - says he's committed to making the president ceremonial, but refused to go along with Nawaz Sharif in diluting those powers.
Zardari has had a legacy of broken promises and the 53-year-old has also spent 11 years in jail on corruption and other charges.
The candidate put forward by the third main party of Pakistan, PML-Q, is Mushahid Hussain Sayed.
The office of the president was occupied by four military rulers for no less than 30 years. If Asif Ali Zardari is elected as the next president, he will become the first head of any political party to occupy the presidency after Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Here's how the President of Pakistan will be elected:
- He is elected by an electoral college comprising of the four Provincial Assemblies, the National Assembly and the Senate.
- There are a total of 702 votes at stake.
- The winning candidate must get 352 votes.
Zardari's position looks unbeatable as his party has 124 seats in the National Assembly and it has a majority in the Sindh Assembly.
It is the second largest party in the Provincial Assemblies of Punjab, Balochistan and North West Frontier.
The election process has already started.
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