Dawn :
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Dr Arifur Rehman Alvi has been elected the 13th President of Pakistan, according to provisional results. The counting of the votes is under way, and while the Election Commission of Pakistan is scheduled to announce official results tomorrow, provisional results have started pouring in.
Alvi, according to unofficial results, has edged out PML-N backed chief of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), Fazlur Rehman; and senior PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan in the presidential race by garnering the most number of votes in at least four of the six leading parliamentary bodies in the country.
“I am grateful to God that the PTI-nominated candidate has been successful in the presidential race today,” Alvi said in his victory speech. “I am also thankful to Imran Khan for nominating me for such a big responsibility.”
In his impending five-year term, Alvi said he hopes that the “fortunes of the poor” take a turn for the better, and that they get “food, shelter and clothing”.
Alvi said that “from today I am not just president that was nominated by the PTI but I am the president of the entire nation and all parties. Each party has an equal right on me”.
Of the 430 votes cast in the National Assembly and Senate, PTI’s Alvi received 212 votes, JUI-F’s Rehman bagged 131 and PPP’s Ahsan garnered 81; six votes were rejected.
Of the 61 Balochistan Assembly members, 60 cast their votes, with former CM Nawab Sanaullah Zehri the sole absentee. According to provisional results reported by DawnNewsTV, PTI’s Alvi secured 45 of the 60 votes cast by the province’s newly elected lawmakers.
In Sindh Assembly, PPP’s Ahsan garnered 100 votes, Dr Alvi bagged 56, whereas just a solitary vote was cast in the favour of JUI’s Rehman; one vote was wasted.
In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly, Dr Alvi received 78 of the total 109 votes, while Rehman and Ahsan had 26 and five votes respectively to their names.
A joint sitting of the Senate and the newly elected national and provincial assemblies – together known as the electoral college of Pakistan – was called to elect the country’s 13th president.
The voting started at around 10am and ended at 4:00pm. The NA and Senate members voted inside the National Assembly hall, whereas the MPAs did the same in their respective provincial assemblies.
With an hour left in the 4:00pm voting deadline, Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived at the Parliament House and cast his vote.
The Election Commission of Pakistan had barred the members from carrying mobile phones with them at the time of voting.
Personnel of Rangers and FC have been deployed around the Parliament House and the buildings of the provincial assemblies, which have been declared as polling stations.
With the Constitution requiring the presidential election to be held at least a month prior to the outgoing president’s final day in the office, the exercise taking place on Tuesday should have been held by August 9, as incumbent President Mamnoon Hussain’s term will expire on September 9.
However, since the electoral college was not complete by the Constitutionally set deadline, the presidential election was subjected to delay.
The exercise on Tuesday will mark the end of a lengthy poll season that began with the July 25 general elections and was followed by various speaker, deputy speaker, prime and chief ministerial ballots.
The newly elected president will take oath of the office on September 9 after the expiry of the five-year term of incumbent president Hussain.
