Pakistan's coalition unanimously agrees to back Asif Ali Zardari as president

A spokeswoman for the Pakistan People's Party, Sherry Rehman, said the party's decision to back Zardari's candidacy was unanimous. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's former military leader who became a civilian president late last year, resigned Monday rather than face impeachment.

Zardari, who took over the party after his wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in December, is a divisive figure in Pakistan. Though Bhutto's death wins him some sympathy from the public, he also is burdened by allegations of large-scale corruption that clung to him after his tenure in his wife's Cabinet in the 1990s.

Foes still trot out his derisive nickname from those days, "Mr. 10 Percent," for his alleged kickback demands on government contracts.

Zardari is sufficiently controversial that when he became party leader, his college-age son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was named ceremonial co-chairman, with Zardari serving as a kind of regent. The younger Bhutto, who is a student at Oxford, is legally too young to enter politics.

Pakistan's Election Commission today set a date of Sept. 6 for the presidential election, which is to be held by federal and provincial lawmakers.

The People's Party is in the midst of a power struggle with its coalition partner, led by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, over restoration of dozens of senior judges fired last year by Musharraf. Sharif has given a Wednesday deadline for the judges' reinstatement, threatening to otherwise leave the coalition. Zardari has agreed in principle to restore the judiciary but is thought to fear the revival of corruption cases against him.

Even without the support of Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N, the People's Party could probably muster enough support to get Zardari elected, analysts say. Sharif's party has said that the presidential candidate should come from one of Pakistan's smaller provinces but that it might unite behind Zardari if the judges issue is settled.

Zardari and Sharif are longtime rivals, however, and their personal distaste for each other has been increasingly apparent in recent days.

If the coalition collapses, the People's Party, which took the largest share of votes in February parliamentary elections, could probably cobble together a new alliance with smaller parties.

Meanwhile, the death toll in an insurgent attack on Thursday against Pakistan's main munitions complex rose to 78, officials said. Pakistan's Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings, which came as one shift of workers was leaving and another arriving. At least two and possibly three bombers blew themselves up in coordinated strikes at the gates of the sprawling compound northwest of the capital, Islamabad.

A fourth would-be bomber was arrested today and his explosives belt recovered, according to the country's chief civilian law-enforcement official, Rehman Malik.

laura.king@latimes.com

Zaidi reported from Islamabad and King, a Times staff writer, from Dubai.