Arif Alvi sworn in as 13th President of Pakistan, Mamnoon went back to home
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Dr Arif Alvi was sworn in as the 13th President of Pakistan at a
ceremony at Aiwan-i-Sadr in Islamabad on Sunday, a day after outgoing
president Mamnoon Hussain's five-year term ended.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar administered oath to Alvi,
a senior Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader who was elected to the
National Assembly from Karachi's NA-247 constituency during the July 25
polls.
As per the 1973 Constitution, Alvi's election to the NA seat will
stand null and void once he takes oath as President of Pakistan, since
an elected member of Parliament cannot hold the office of head of state.
Top civil and military leadership, including members of the federal
cabinet, the three services chiefs, parliamentarians, justices of the
Supreme Court, diplomats and other well-known personalities and foreign
officials were in attendance at the ceremony.
Prime Minister Imran Khan and outgoing president Mamnoon Hussain
flanked Alvi and Justice Nisar at the dias as the oath was administered.
Alvi, who was up against PPP's Aitzaz Ahsan and JUI-F's Maulana Fazlur Rehman for the post of president last week, won the election with at least 352 electoral votes ─ 44 more than his two rivals could collectively obtain. Fazl and Ahsan clinched 185 and 124 votes respectively.
Who is Arif Alvi?
Dr Alvi’s career in politics spans over five decades and began with
his role in student politics as a president of the student union at
de’Montmorency College of Dentistry in Lahore.
Alvi was part of the student movement of 1969 during Gen Ayub Khan’s
military regime and, as his party men say, was among those who fought
for democracy in the country.
For the first time, Arif Alvi emerged as an election candidate in
1977 when he secured a Pakistan National Alliance ticket for a Sindh
Assembly seat for Karachi. However, he did not take part in the
elections as they were boycotted by the opposition parties.
Born in 1949 and a dentist by profession, Dr Alvi was among more than
100 candidates who were fielded by the PTI in the 1997 elections. All
the aspirants, including Imran Khan, lost, most of them to the Pakistan
Muslim League-Nawaz.
Dr Alvi ran in the 1997 elections from, now erstwhile, PS-114
(Clifton Karachi) but could secure only 2,000 plus votes. He contested
from another constituency — PS-90 (Karachi West) — in the 2002 elections
but received fewer votes (1,276) than his previous tally.
For a long time, Dr Alvi has remained the only known face of the
party in Sindh as he dedicated his time, house and money for the party.
According to the PTI’s official website, he is one of its founding
members and was the party’s secretary general from 2006 till 2013.
For the first time, he was elected a member of the National Assembly
from the erstwhile Clifton constituency NA-250 (now NA-247) in the 2013
polls, which was the only NA seat won by the party in Sindh.
He was re-elected to the National Assembly from the same Clifton
constituency now called NA-247 (Karachi South-II) in the July 25 general
election.