September 07, 2008	Sunday	Ramazan 06, 1429

LAHORE, Sept 6: PML-N presidential candidate Justice (retd) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui obtained the highest number of votes in the Punjab assembly on Saturday.

Two hundred and one members voted for Mr Siddiqui, 123 for Asif Ali Zardari of the Pakistan People’s Party and only 36 for Mushahid Hussain Sayed of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q.

“We needed 186 members for maintaining a simple majority and we are satisfied with the results, which showed our government’s stability in the province,” Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan of the PML-N told reporters.

PPP’s Senior Minister Raja Riaz said the nation had elected Mr Zardari as the president, adding that Punjab did not belong to just one party. “We too enjoy the support of its people.”

Of the 371 members, 370 cast their ballots during the polling conducted by Lahore High Court Chief Justice Sayed Zahid Hussain. One member, belonging to the PML-Q, could not cast his ballot because he was yet to take the oath.

Seven votes of the PML-N members and three of those from the PPP were rejected on various grounds.

The PML-N received 35 extra votes and the PPP 19 from other parties and independent legislators. The PML-N has 173 members and the PPP 107 in the provincial assembly.

The number of votes the PML-N candidate had bagged showed that 50 of its MPAs voted against Mr Mushahid. A majority of them — led by Ata Maneka, who had formed a forward bloc of 35 PML-Q members — supported the PML-N candidate.