FIERCE OPPOSTION: Pakistani girl students campaign against Asif Ali Zardari who is running for president in Islamabad on Friday. (AP)

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s presidential hopefuls made a final push for support yesterday on the eve of an election that slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s widower is expected to win.

Asif Ali Zardari is the front-runner in a three-way race to take power in a country riven by militancy and economic turmoil. Security will be raised on election day, officials told reporters, and Zardari has already moved house due to fears of attempts being made on his life, just nine months after Bhutto was killed at a campaign rally.

Tensions rose further after a failed assassination attempt on Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, whose car was hit by sniper fire on Wednesday as it drove to meet him at an airport. Zardari will face a multitude of problems if he wins a secret ballot among lawmakers and takes charge of a nuclear-armed state where bombings and suicide attacks have killed nearly 1,200 people in the past year.

Pakistan’s economy is backsliding with inflation rampant and a volatile political situation contributing to a 40 percent fall on the stock market since January, in a country already reliant on foreign aid. The unrest that has struck the nation has been attributed to militants angry at former President Pervez Musharraf’s support for the United States and its “war on terror.” Musharraf’s resignation triggered today’s election but his military policy is likely to continue with Zardari.

The 53-year-old presidential hopeful has said that Pakistan will continue to back the US in its efforts to defeat terrorism if he is elected. The White House said yesterday it expects Pakistan’s next president to cooperate in the fight against terrorism. “We’ll continue to work with them, we need to have their cooperation,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Islamabad is heavily dependent on the billions of dollars that have headed here since Musharraf backed the US after the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001, and in its subsequent invasion of Afghanistan.

As co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Zardari already heads a fragile coalition government which, although still in office, recently lost the backing of two-time former Premier Nawaz Sharif’s party.

A PPP aide said that Zardari met parliamentarians and his own party officials to finalize strategy for election day. “InshaAllah (God willing) he will win and secure 500 of the 700 votes of the electoral college,” the aide said, referring to the Senate, National Assembly and four provincial assemblies that will choose Pakistan’s president.

In Islamabad yesterday, meanwhile, cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan launched a scathing attack on Zardari, saying he should not be elected. “He is known to be involved in corruption and such a person should not be the president of Pakistan,” Khan, who now heads his own political party Tehrik-e-Insaaf or Justice Party, told a 500-strong crowd.

Zardari is being challenged by retired Chief Justice Saeeduz Zaman Siddiqui, who is backed by Sharif, and Mushahid Hussain, a close aide of Musharraf.

Sharif’s spokesman alleged yesterday that Zardari was indulging in unfair tactics ahead of the vote. Having defeated Musharraf’s political allies in February polls, Zardari handpicked Geelani as prime minister. If he wins today, the role of president would allow him to go further and dismiss governments and appoint leaders of the military, which has ruled Pakistan for half its existence.