Awami National Party president Asfandyar Wali is tipped to replace Pervez Musharraf who resigned as president on Monday, sources said. Wali is close to coalition partners Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif and will also be acceptable to Maulana Fazlur Rehman. “Consensus is very difficult,” said Siddiq Al-Farook, spokesman of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, after the second round of coalition talks here to pick a president. PML-N is the junior partner in the coalition led by Pakistan People's Party (PPP) which Zardari co-chairs with his son Bilawel. Also being considered for presidency are Baloch leader Attaullah Mengal, former chief justice (retd) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqi, Zardari's sister Faryal Talpur, Ghous Ali Shah and Aftab Shaaban Mirani. Mengal is also said to be a favorite because he belongs to the troubled Balochistan province and because the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) does not want the new president to be from the PPP. Mengal has not agreed to the idea so far. But Rehman is trying to take advantage of the differences between the coalition partners and banking on his qualification of being a “religious scholar” who can prove helpful in tackling the problem of religious militancy. Wali is a Pashtun, whose fellow Pashtuns are waging a war against the Pakistani state in the tribal areas. One of the two former “apolitical” judges, Siddiqi, may be chosen to acknowledge the legal fraternity's political struggle against Musharraf. Ghous Ali Shah's return from self-exile at a crucial juncture may also be a signal that the PML-N wants to lay a claim to the presidency with a qualified candidate from the province of Sindh. But Zardari does not want to take a risk and wants the president to cooperate with the PPP. Zardari's statement about the new president being a woman has been taken as an indication that he sees his sister Faryal Talpur as another presidential candidate. Talpur and Mirani are from the Sindh province. Mirani is a veteran politician from Shikarpur and related to Zardari. Former army chief Jahangir Karamat can be a dark horse in the run for country's top office. __
