Pakistan holds presidential elections

Pakistani lawmakers on Tuesday began voting for a new president, marking an end to the five-year term of outgoing Asif Ali Zardari whose party lost May’s general elections.

An official from the Pakistan election commission told AFP that lawmakers in the Senate, National Assembly and the four provincial assemblies have started casting their votes to elect a new head of state.

Mamnoon Hussain, a businessman from the southern city of Karachi and close ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is the most likely to replace Zardari.

A long-serving member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), Hussain addressed a party meeting in Islamabad on Monday.