Peshawar: Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf won a presidential vote, officials said on Saturday, despite a Supreme Court ruling that the official result cannot be declared pending legal challenges.
State television reported at least 691 lawmakers, virtually all from the ruling coalition, cast votes at a joint session of the National Assembly and Senate in the capital, Islamabad, and at the four provincial assemblies. Musharraf's main rival candidate was a retired judge offering token opposition.
Meanwhile, protesting lawyers clashed with Pakistani police in the northwestern city of Peshawar as lawmakers started voting in a presidential election, witnesses said.
At least 300 lawyers gathered near the regional parliament in the city, burning an effigy of President Pervez Musharraf.
Witnesses said protesters tried to set fire to a police armoured vehicle and threw stones at police who used batons to disperse the crowd.
Security was high across the country as MPs voted in Islamabad and in the provincial capitals of Lahore, Karachi, Quetta and Peshawar.
The court ruled on Friday that the vote in the two-chamber parliament and four provincial assemblies could go ahead, but no winner would be declared until it decided on October 17 whether Musharraf was eligible to run for office while still army chief.
