Asif Ali Zardari returns as President for an unprecedented second time
Liaquat Ali
Islamabad: Asif Ali Zardari this week took oath as Pakistan’s 14th President, after the veteran politician staged a remarkable comeback when he was overwhelmingly elected as the only civilian president of the coup-prone country for a second time.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa administered the oath to the 68-year-old Mr Zardari in a small yet formal ceremony at Aiwan-e-Sadr, the Presidential Palace.
Zardari replaced Dr Arif Alvi, who stayed in office for five months after completing his five-year term in September 2023.
The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chief of Army Staff General Asim Munir and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Sahir Shamshad Mirza among other senior army and civilian officials and diplomats.
The outgoing president Alvi, a senior member of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party, also attended the oath-taking ceremony.
Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Zardari’s son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, his daughters Aseefa Bhutto Zardari and Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari and other family members were present on the occasion.
This is the second time that Zardari has won the presidency, a record for any civilian. Earlier he served as the 11th president of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013 and is one of the four democratically elected presidents to have completed their five-year constitutional term.
He has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since August 2018.
Co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Mr Zardari was the joint candidate of the ruling alliance and was elected on Saturday after he defeated Mahmood Khan Achakzai, a candidate backed by PTI and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) by a huge margin.
Born in 1955, Mr Zardari was brought up and educated in Karachi. He was married to Pakistan’s former prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s daughter, Benazir Bhutto, who was assassinated in December 2007.
The office of the president is a ceremonial post, and he acts on the advice of the prime minister. But Zardari is expected to play a larger role as his PPP is a key partner of the coalition government.
Incidentally, almost 12 years ago, Qazi Faez Isa, who was then the Balochistan High Court’s Chief Justice and headed a Commission that investigated what was known as the Memogate scandal for over five months and exonerated Zardari from any direct involvement in the memo scandal.
After the partition in 1947, Pakistan’s first president was Iskandar Mirza who took office on March 23, 1956 after the first constitution was adopted and the country became a republic. Before that the country was led by the Governor Generals.
