Asif Ali Zardari, the president of the Pakistan Muslim Party (PkMAP), will compete against Mahmood Khan Achakzai, the nominee of the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) for president of the new coalition administration.
Both candidates’ nomination documents were submitted to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday. Before Chief Justice IHC Aamer Farooq, who is overseeing the presidential election, PTI officials Sardar Latif Khosa and Omar Ayub Khan filed the documents for Achakzai, while Farooq H. Naik and Saleem Mandviwala filed those for Zardari.
The ECP schedule states that nomination papers for the country’s constitutional post may be submitted until Saturday noon in Islamabad and the four provincial capitals of Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar, and Quetta. Polling for the presidential election will take place on March 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The returning officer in Islamabad will review nomination papers by 10 a.m. on Monday, March 4.
Up until Tuesday at noon (March 5), the candidates may choose to withdraw their nomination papers from the returning officer in Islamabad.
The candidates’ list will be released to the public that same day.
Since his five-year term expired on September 9 of last year, incumbent President Dr. Arif Alvi has already been in office for a longer period of time.
According to Article 44(1) of the Constitution, the president will serve for a period of five years beginning on the day he takes office and will remain in that position until a successor is selected.
Dr. Alvi is the fourth democratically elected president of the nation to serve out a full five-year term. Prior to Dr. Alvi, the three presidents who served out their entire tenure were Asif Ali Zardari (the eleventh president, from 2008 to 2013), Mamnoon Hussain (the twelveth president, from 2013 to 2018), and Chaudhary Fazal Elahi (the fifth president, from 1973 to 1978).
Consequently, Dr. Alvi is the first president to serve an extended term as a result of an incomplete electoral college, which consists of the National Assembly, Senate, and the four provincial assemblies. Dr. Alvi is also the third president in a row to have a full term.
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