Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari Elected For A Second Term

(CTN News) – For the second time in his career, Pakistan’s 14th President and co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party Asif Ali Zardari was elected as the nation’s head of state on Saturday.

In the election, Zardari, 68, was the joint candidate of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), whereas his rival Mahmood Khan Achakzai, 75, was the candidate of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).

There were 255 votes cast in favor of him in the National Assembly and 119 votes in favor of his opponent in the Senate.

As per the provisions of the Constitution, the new president was elected by the electors of the newly elected members of the National Assembly and of the four provincial assemblies, which were the newly elected members of the National Assembly at the time of the election.

Zardari had the most votes in the Sindh Assembly, where his PPP is currently in power, while he had the most votes in the Balochistan Assembly, where he had all of the votes cast.

As well as winning the Punjab assembly, Achakzai was defeated by him.

As SIC/PTI have the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Achakzai gained the largest number of votes against Zardari in the assembly of that province. As a businessman turned politician,

Asif Ali Zardari is the husband of the slain prime minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto.

This will be Zardari’s second term in office, following the five-year term of Dr Arif Alvi. The new electoral college has yet to be formed, however, so he continues to participate in the election.

In addition to being the first civilian to be elected as president for a second term, Zardari will also be the first president to serve twice in a row. The swearing-in ceremony is expected to take place on Sunday when he is sworn into office.

It is his party, the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), that is responsible for winning the election. The SIC was a Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which first gained prominence after independent candidates joined after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, led by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, became a part of it.

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