Asif Ali Zardari will be the new President of Pakistan, becoming the first civilian to hold the post for the second time

Senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Asif Ali Zardari was on Saturday elected the 14th President of Pakistan and became the head of state for the second time. Zardari, the joint candidate of the PPP and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led coalition government, got 255 votes, while Imran Khan-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) candidate Mahmood Khan Achakzai got 119 votes. Zardari, 68, was already tipped to win as his re-election as president was one of the conditions of the newly formed alliance between the PPP and the PML-N.

Businessman-turned-politician Zardari is the husband of late Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and was President from 2008 to 2013. In the Sindh Assembly, where Zardari’s PPP is in power, he got the most votes, while he also captured all the votes in the Balochistan Assembly. He also defeated Achakzai in the Punjab Assembly. In the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, where the SIC/PTI is in power, Achakzai got the highest number of votes against Zardari.

Zardari, who was President from 2008 to 2013, is the first citizen in the history of Pakistan to be elected President twice. He will replace the incumbent Dr Arif Alvi, whose five-year tenure ended last year. However, that continues since the new electoral college has not yet been formed. According to the provisions of the Constitution, the new President was elected by an electoral college of newly elected members of the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies.

Achakzai heads his Pashtunkhawa Milli Awami Party (PKMAP) and was contesting the election on the platform of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), which rose to prominence after independent candidates backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf I came in. PTI) participated in it.