Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, who secured a decisive victory as the 14th president of the country a day earlier, is set to take the oath of office today (Sunday).
The oath-taking ceremony is scheduled to occur at Aiwan-e-Sadr in Islamabad at 4 pm. Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa will officiate the oath for the newly-elected president.
Expected attendees at the swearing-in ceremony include Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, all three service chiefs, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) General Sahir Shamshad Mirza. Additionally, governors from all four provinces, chief ministers, and foreign diplomats are slated to participate in the event.
As the joint candidate of the ruling alliance, Zardari secured his second term as the country’s president on Saturday, defeating PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) candidate Mahmood Khan Achakzai by a substantial margin. Zardari garnered 411 electoral votes in parliament and all four provincial assemblies with the support of allied parties, primarily the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
His rival, Achakzai, received 181 votes, securing the majority in the PTI-backed SIC-dominated Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.
In the National Assembly, Zardari received 225 votes against Achakzai’s 119 votes. Similarly, in the Sindh Assembly, Zardari obtained 53 votes, while Achakzai could only manage three.
Zardari’s victory also extended to the Punjab Assembly with 43 votes, the KP Assembly with eight votes, and the Balochistan Assembly with 47 votes. Meanwhile, Achakzai secured 18, 41, and 0 votes in the respective assemblies.
This marks Zardari’s second term as president, having previously served from 2008 to 2013. Born in 1955, Zardari was raised and educated in Karachi. He was married to Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was assassinated in December 2007.
Zardari will succeed Dr. Arif Alvi, who extended his tenure for an additional five months after completing his initial five-year term in September 2023.
