Mamnoon Hussain, an India-born Pakistani politician and trusted ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, has been elected president, in a vote by legislators.

    Low-key businessman elected Pakistan president

    PAKISTAN has elected businessman Mamnoon Hussain as its 12th president to replace deeply unpopular Asif Ali Zardari, whose five-year term will expire in September.

    Lawmakers from both houses of the national parliament and four provincial assemblies voted Tuesday in the two-man race for the largely ceremonial president of the nuclear-armed state.

    Hussain, a 73-year-old businessman and close ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the financial capital, Karachi, had been considered certain to replace Zardari.

    The only other candidate was retired Supreme Court judge Wajihuddin Ahmed, nominated by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the third largest party in parliament and led by cricket hero Imran Khan.

    Hussain received 432 votes from lawmakers, said the head of Pakistan’s election commission, Fakhruddin Ibrahim. The only other candidate, Ahmed, received 77 votes.

    Hussain’s loyalty to Sharif and low profile is expected to bolster the prime minister’s authority and provide a stark contrast to Zardari, considered a sharp political operator behind the scenes.

    A long-serving member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) party, he briefly served as governor of the southern province Sindh under Sharif’s last premiership in 1999.

    “He had no political affiliation until 1999 but his polite discourse and professional ability impressed Nawaz Sharif who made him governor of Sindh,” Azhar Haroon, the current president of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI), said.

    On the eve of the election, Hussain told a PML-N meeting in the capital, Islamabad, that the office was a symbol of the federation of Pakistan and vowed to serve the country and its people.

    Controversy surrounded the vote. The country’s former ruling party, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which has the second-highest number of seats in the National Assembly, boycotted the election over the Supreme Court’s decision to move the vote forward to Tuesday. It had been scheduled for Aug. 6, but lawmakers asked for it to be pushed to Tuesday so they could travel to Saudi Arabia toward the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

    In a reminder of the enormous challenges Pakistan faces, Taliban militants launched a brazen attack on a prison in the northwest of the country overnight, escaping with prisoners after a three-hour gunfight with security forces.

    A debilitating power crisis also needs to be solved and U.S. relations are strained by drone attacks targeting militants.

    Supporters say Hussain’s election could be important domestically by giving the south some stake in the federal administration, otherwise dominated by Punjab, Sharif’s power base.

    Pakistani presidents are elected by the members of four provincial assemblies, and both houses of parliament.

    Constitutional amendments passed by the last PPP government mean that the presidency is again a ceremonial post, a status likely to be cemented by the fact that Hussain has little personal clout.

    Sharif won a commanding general election victory in May, which marked the first time a Pakistani civilian government completed a full term in office and handed over to another at the ballot box.

    Political analyst Hasan Askari says Tuesday’s election will return Pakistan to a strong executive prime minister and a ceremonial head of state.

    “Mamnoon Hussain is a political lightweight and this is the reason Sharif chose him to become the next president,” he told AFP.

    The last PPP government had a turbulent relationship with Pakistan’s top court and Askari warned that its boycott could lead to rocky relations with the PML-N.

    “Mamnoon Hussain will be elected easily and it will be an easy walkover, but he will start his term with a strong controversy.

    “In the longterm it will cause tensions between PPP and PML-N.”

    Hussain was born to an industrialist family in 1940 in the Indian city of Agra. His family settled in Karachi, the capital of Sindh Province, after Pakistan was carved out of British India in 1947, and set up a textile business there.

    Hussain, who is not a prominent figure in national politics in Pakistan, will replace Zardari, whose five-year term ends Sept. 8. Zardari rose to power after his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a gun and bomb attack in December 2007.

    Hussain had a cloth shop at Bolten Market in Karachi, lived in the area with his brothers and uncles who occupied separate houses in the same locality.

    Hussain’s elder brother, Akhtar Hussain, is well known amongst residents of Allahwala market, where he served as president while running the family business.

    Hussain shifted to Karachi after partition with his father Azhar Hussain and other family members. Schooled in traditional religious education, he completed his matriculation in 1958 and was awarded a bachelor degree from the Government College of Commerce. Subsequently, he attended the prestigious Institute of Business Administration (IBA) in Karachi, from where he graduated in 1965.

    In 1970, he married the daughter of the owner of one of Karachi’s most famous bakeries, Fresco. The incoming president has three sons who are associated with the banking industry and business.

    Belonging to a family with old ties to the locality of Tirath Singh Lalwani Road and Allahwala market, Hussain too enjoys a reputation of being a man of principles.

    “He was a polite, simple man with principles. The family never had any problems with anyone in the area and were known to be religious, with an export business to different countries,” said Mohammad Aslam, a resident of the Ghayan Singh Building and a childhood friend of Hussain.

    Recalling memories of his childhood, Aslam said that he often played cricket and basketball with Hussain, in a ground close to Arambagh.

    Hussain, who has remained associated with the Muslim League from the beginning, was introduced to formal politics by his close friend and mentor Abdul Khaliq Allahwala, a former member of the National Assembly in the 1960s. Quickly making a mark in the League, Hussain rose to become joint secretary of the party in 1967.

    In 1999, he was elected as the president of KCCI and was soon selected by Sharif to become governor of Sindh in June 1999. However, Hussain’s stint as governor ended abruptly after less than six months, when the Sharif government was overthrown by the then military chief Pervez Mushrraf.

    During his political career, Hussain has held important portfolios in a party he will soon have to say goodbye too. He remained the provincial general secretary of PML-N and has also served as party’s acting provincial president of Sindh.

    (SD-Agencies)