By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Asif Ali Zardari, the co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party, was sworn in as the 14th president of Pakistan on Sunday, becoming the first person to hold the office twice in the country’s history.
Zardari, 68, took the oath of office at a ceremony in the President’s House in Islamabad, a day after he won a landslide victory in a presidential election that was boycotted by some opposition parties. He secured 411 electoral votes, defeating his main rival, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, a nationalist leader from Balochistan, who received 181 votes.
The oath was administered by the chief justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa. Zardari was flanked by the newly elected prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and the outgoing president, Dr. Arif Alvi, who had stayed in office for five months beyond his constitutional term due to the lack of an electoral college.
“I will bear true faith and allegiance to Pakistan,” Zardari said in his oath, pledging to uphold the Constitution, protect the Islamic ideology, and serve the interests of the nation. “May Allah Almighty help and guide me, A’meen.”
Zardari’s inauguration marked the culmination of a political deal between his party and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, the largest party in the parliament, which agreed to support each other’s candidates for the prime minister and the president.
Among the dignitaries who attended the ceremony were the chief of army staff, General Asim Munir, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff committee, General Sahir Shamshad Mirza.
Also present were Zardari’s son and the chairman of his party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, his daughters Aseefa and Bakhtawar, his sister Faryal Talpur, and his son-in-law Mahmood Chaudhry.
Zardari, who served as the president from 2008 to 2013, is credited with introducing constitutional amendments that devolved powers to the provinces and reduced the role of the president in the parliamentary system. He also oversaw the first peaceful transition of power from one elected government to another in Pakistan’s history.
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