Asif Ali Zardari became the 14th President of Pakistan on Sunday, taking office one day after the veteran politician was re-elected with overwhelming support to fill the position.
The oath was given to the 68-year-old Zardari in Aiwan-e-Sadr, the Presidential Palace, by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa.
Zardari will take over for Dr. Arif Alvi, who concluded his five-year tenure in September 2023 but remained in office for an additional five months.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, senior officials, ambassadors, and all three service chiefs were present during the swearing-in ceremony.
Zardari, the co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the joint candidate of the ruling alliance, won a landslide victory over Mahmood Khan Achakzai, the nominee for the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which was endorsed by the PTI, to become the nation’s second-ever president on Saturday.
With the support of affiliated parties, primarily the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), he was able to secure 411 electoral votes in both Parliament and all four provincial assemblies.
Achakzai, his opponent, received 181 votes, as he could only muster the majority in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, which was ruled by the SIC and backed by the PTI.
Zardari has won the presidency twice already. Prior to this, from 2008 to 2013, he was Pakistan’s eleventh president. Since August 2018, he has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan.
Zardari was raised and educated in Karachi after being born in 1955. He was wed to Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of Pakistan’s former prime leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was murdered in December 2007.
