ISLAMABAD : Presidential Race

Pakistan’s 87-member Senate, its 217-seat National Assembly and four provincial assemblies are to vote Sunday to elect a new president, who, along with the prime minister and army chief, will make up the informal triumvirate that runs the country.

Among a dozen candidates are five fielded by the Pakistan Muslim League, which is led by Nawaz Sharif, archrival and predecessor of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was reelected to the premiership last month.

Ex-President Ghulam Ishaq Khan, who dismissed Bhutto as prime minister three years ago on disputed charges of misrule, has withdrawn from the presidential contest this time along with three other key figures in Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. The party’s sole candidate is now Foreign Minister Farooq Leghari.