Bhutto's widower for Pakistan president: party

200,000 have fled violence in northwest: ICRC

ISLAMABAD/ GENEVA (Agencies)

Lawmakers from the party of slain former Pakistan premier Benazir Bhutto on Friday unanimously nominated her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, to run for president, a government minister said.

"Zardari thanked Pakistan People's Party of which he is the co-chairman and said he will announce his decision within the next 24 hours," information minister Sherry Rehman told reporters in Islamabad.

She said party members unanimously nominated Zardari as their presidential candidate during a meeting of the grouping's central executive committee.

"Zardari thanked party members for their gesture and promised to look into their request," she added.

Pakistan will hold a presidential election on September 6 to pick a successor to Pervez Musharraf, who resigned this week to avoid impeachment charges.

Under Pakistan's constitution, the new president must be elected by a simultaneous sitting of the upper and lower houses of the national parliament and the country's four provincial assemblies.

Nomination papers will be reviewed on August 28 and the final date for any withdrawals is August 30.

"Presidency is the right of our party and that is why party lawmakers asked Zardari to run for this post," Rehman said.

200,000 flee violence

Meanwhile, more than 200,000 people have fled fighting in northwestern Pakistan this month and are in urgent need of relief assistance, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday.

The humanitarian agency said it had launched an initial aid operation to help 64,000 of the 200,000 people forced to flee Bajaur. Pakistan has launched military operations against militants in the restive tribal region on the Afghan border, a known sanctuary for al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

The figure includes 50,000 people who have left for relatively safer areas of Pakistan in the North West Frontier Province, including Peshawar, as well as 14,000 who have crossed into eastern Afghanistan, the ICRC said in a statement.

"...these displaced people are in urgent need of basic necessities such as food, clean water and shelter," said Pascal Cuttat, head of ICRC's delegation in Pakistan. "Lack of medical care is a problem for sick people, particularly children."

Along with the Pakistan Red Crescent Society, the ICRC has delivered medical supplies to hospitals receiving the bulk of the injured, according to the Geneva-based agency.

Blankets, clothing, tarpaulins, soap and other supplies were being distributed to the displaced, and food was on its way.

Host families who have taken in the displaced were already poor and their food resources are dwindling further, it said.

The ICRC was planning to deliver emergency food and non-food aid on Saturday to 14,000 people from Bajaur who have fled into Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan.