Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari said on Sunday that he will not seek another term, which is to end in September, after his party was defeated in last month’s parliamentary vote.
In the May 11 elections, his Pakistan People’s Party that was leading the coalition government won only 39 seats in the Lower House, compared to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, which won 176 to become the largest party.
In an interview with Pakistani television stations aired late on Sunday, Zardari said, “I think I don’t have the right to run this time because we don’t have a majority.” “Yes, there can be a fight but it will become a messy fight,” he said.
The president is elected by the members of both the Senate (upper house) and National Assembly (lower house) and the four provincial legislatures. In the current tally, it would be very hard for Zardari to be re-elected.
Zardari was elected president in September 2008, when his party was the largest in the national legislature. The party and the coalition partners were also powerful in three other provinces.
His party still holds the majority in the Senate.
But the party lost power in all but one Sindh province in the May elections. It also lost the lower house to Nawaz Sharif’s party, who is set to take oath for the prime ministership from Zardari later this week after a vote in the parliament.
During Sunday’s interview, Zardari said he will take on the leadership of the embattled party if it considers him in that capacity.
“Otherwise, I will function in the capacity of a worker,” he said.
Zardari urged the next government to take a cautious approach to possible peace talks with the Pakistanis. “They should first identify which forces are political and which are militants, as extremists don’t negotiate,” he said.
Sharif’s party has pursued talks with the Taliban insurgents, who recently backed out after a US drone killed their deputy commander.
Zardari said there was no deal in place with the United States over making drone attacks on Pakistani territory.
Zardari hailed the “democratic transition of power” as a landmark achievement in a country where the military has ruled more than half of the time since the country was formed in 1947. He vowed that his party would play the role of a constructive opposition in the next government.
During Zardari’s tenure, many of the presidential roles were transferred to the prime minister after amendments in the constitution, resulting in the presidency becoming a more titular head of state.
Zardari is the widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December 2007. Their son Bilawal Bhutto officially runs the party, even though many say that Zardari remains the main force.
Controversy has surrounded Zardari’s presidency amid accusations of corruption. When his party was in power for the last two years, Pakistan saw major crises in the areas of security, the economy and electricity provision.