Asif Ali Zardari elected as 14th Pakistan President

ISLAMABAD: Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), has been elected as Pakistan’s 14th President, Geo News reported. Zardari became the head of the State for the second time as he served as the president from 2008 to 2013.

Zardari, the joint candidate of the ruling alliance, secured a remarkable 255 electoral votes in the parliamentary election, beating the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-backed Sunni Ittehad Council candidate, Mahmood Khan Achakzai. In contrast, Achakzai garnered 119 votes in the combined National Assembly and Senate, with only one vote being rejected in parliament, according to Geo News.

PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, in his post, announced, “In the presidential elections, his party’s candidate and father, Asif Ali Zardari, secured a total of 411 votes against the candidate backed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who only managed to garner 181 votes”.

411 PPP
181 SIC

Congratulations President elect Zardari @AAliZardari

Ab Sadar Banega Zardari pic.twitter.com/peJwjjCyYF

— BilawalBhuttoZardari (@BBhuttoZardari) March 9, 2024

In a post on X, the former foreign minister said Zardari received 255 votes from the National Assembly and Senate, 151 from the Sindh Assembly, 246 in Punjab, 17 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 47 in the Balochistan Assembly.

The results clearly favoured Zardari, leading to jubilant celebrations by PPP workers outside the Punjab Assembly. The victory dance to the beat of Dhol marked the party’s triumphant moment.

Zardari, the joint nominee of PPP and PML-N, and Achakzai from the Sunni Ittehad Council, were the contenders for the presidential office.

The president was chosen by an electoral college consisting of members from the Senate, the National Assembly, and the four provincial assemblies. A joint session of the parliament was conducted at the parliament house in Islamabad, where members from both the National Assembly and the Senate exercised their franchise, according to ARY News. (ANI)