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| Tuesday, 6 July 2004 |
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Imran Khan may fight by-election against Pakistan's next PM ISLAMABAD, Monday (AFP) Former Pakistani cricket legend Imran Khan may go head-to-head with the man designated as the country next prime minister in a by-election in August, party officials said. Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz was nominated to succeed premier Zafarullah Jamali, who resigned last month, but Aziz is a senator in parliament's upper house and must first be elected as a lower house MP to serve as prime minister. A spokesman for Imran Khan's Tehrik-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party, Akbar Babar, told AFP Khan was thinking about contesting Aziz in the northern Punjab district of Attock on August 18. "Imran Khan is consulting all opposition parties as there is a growing pressure on him from within his party to contest election from Attock," Babar said. However, Aziz, a former international banker, is also standing in a by-election on the same day in southern Sindh province's desert town of Tharparkar. Two MPs of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) this week resigned from their seats to pave way for the polls. Pakistan's Election Commission has invited nominations from July 6-8 from candidates for the polls, it said in a statement. The final list of candidates will be published on July 21, it said. Aziz, a technocrat with no political background, named by President Pervez Musharraf as his finance minister within weeks of his October 1999 coup, is credited with salvaging Pakistan's economy. Jamali abruptly stepped down on June 26, nominating ruling party chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain as interim successor for about two months until Aziz can take his place. Ruling party secretary general Mushahid Hussain told AFP Aziz stood a good chance of winning the polls as the previous party candidates won with "comfortable majority" in the 2002 elections. "It will be a normal transition and will take a few days for Shaukat Aziz to become prime minister after election results are notified," Mushahid said. Islamists have asked secular opposition parties to field "joint candidates" against Aziz. "Consultations are underway to field joint candidates against Shaukat Aziz in the by-elections," Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, parliamentary leader of six-party Islamist alliance Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal told AFP. Less than two weeks ago, Khan and his British wife, socialite and heiress Jemima announced that they had divorced, ending their nine-year-marriage. The 50-year-old, who led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 cricket World Cup and set up his own party in 1996, told AFP that "my political life made it difficult for her to adapt to life in Pakistan." |
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