Asif Ali Zardari Sworn in as Pakistan’s 14th President Amidst Ceremony

Asif Ali Zardari, Co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), was officially inaugurated as Pakistan’s 14th president in a ceremony presided over by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa.

Asif Ali Zardari’s second term’s swearing ceremony was held at Islamabad’s Aiwan-e-Sadr. Key figures, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and outgoing president Arif Alvi, were in attendance, along with high-ranking military officials and diplomats.

Zardari won the presidency with a landslide victory and coalition support. He notably received substantial support from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), amassing 411 votes across both parliamentary and provincial platforms. His opponent, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, supported by PTI and the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), garnered 181 votes, mainly from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

In detail, Zardari received 225 votes in the National Assembly, outpacing Achakzai’s 119. The Sindh Assembly saw Zardari securing 53 votes to Achakzai’s three. The voting pattern continued in Zardari’s favour in the Punjab, KP, and Balochistan Assemblies.

Zardari’s political career includes a previous presidency from 2008 to 2013 and a tenure as a National Assembly member since August 2018. Born in 1955 in Karachi, he married Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. Zardari’s return to the presidency follows Dr Arif Alvi, who extended his term until March 2024, beyond his official tenure.