President-elect Arif Alvi set to take oath

–PM, COAS, ambassadors will attend oath-taking ceremony of new president on Sunday

ISLAMABAD: President-elect Dr Arif Alvi will take oath as the head of the nation on Sunday following the completion of incumbent President Mamnoon Hussain’s tenure on Saturday.

Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Mian Saqib Nisar will administrate oath from the newly-elected president. According to the Presidency spokesperson, Alvi will take oath as the 13th president of Pakistan.

Apart from Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) General Qamar Javed Bajwa, senior political and military authorities will also attend the oath-taking ceremony.

Ambassadors of various countries have also been invited to the ceremony.

The spokesperson said that the guests will be served with tea and biscuits at the ceremony.

Who is Dr Arif Alvi?

Dr Arif Alvi is a politician, dentist and a parliamentarian.

He is also a founding member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and was the party’s secretary-general from 2006 till 2013.

Dr Arif Alvi had previously contested the 1997 general elections as a provincial assembly candidate and then later again in the 2002 general elections as a National Assembly (NA) candidate.

Earlier in 2013, he was elected as a Member of the National Assembly from Karachi’s NA-250.

Dr Arif Alvi is married to Samina Alvi and they have four children, all married.

He used to play squash, cricket and hockey during his youth.

He acquired his dental degree BDS (Dentistry) from De’Montmonrency College of Dentistry, an affiliate of University of Punjab. He also has a Master of Science in Prosthodontics from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and got it in 1975.

He then went to the University of the Pacific, San Francisco and completed a Master of Science in Orthodontics in 1984.

In 1969, Dr Alvi was active in the student movement during General Ayub Khan’s era and fought for democracy in Pakistan.

During one of the protests on the Lahore Mall Road, he was shot and wounded and still carries a bullet embedded in his right arm as a mark of his struggle for democracy.

He was the Jamaat-e-Islami candidate for Provincial Assembly in Karachi in 1979.

On the other hand, President Mamnoon Hussain’s term as head of state will end on Saturday.

President-elect Dr Arif Alvi will ascent to the presidency on September 9.

Speaking at his farewell ceremony, the president said, “I left no stone unturned in fulfilling the responsibilities given to me by the people of Pakistan.”

“During my tenure, I strictly remained within the constitutional limits and powers,” he added.

Pakistan’s heads of state:

1. Iskander Mirza (March 23, 1956, to October 27, 1958)

2. Ayub Khan (October 27, 1958, to March 25, 1969)

3. Yahya Khan (March 25, 1969, to December 20, 1971)

4. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (December 20, 1971, to August 13, 1973)

5. Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry (August 14, 1973, to September 16, 1978)

6. Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq (September 16, 1978, to August 17, 1988)

7. Ghulam Ishaq Khan (August 17, 1988, to July 18, 1993)

8. Farooq Leghari (November 14, 1993, to December 2, 1997)

9. Muhammad Rafiq Tarar (January 1, 1998, to June 20, 2001)

10. Pervez Musharraf (June 20, 2001, to August 18, 2008)

11. Asif Ali Zardari (September 9, 2008, to September 8, 2013)

12. Mamnoon Hussain (September 8, 2013, to September 8, 2018)