Islamabad (Staff Report): Dr Arif Alvi on Sunday sworn in as the 13th President of Pakistan.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar administered oath to Alvi at a ceremony held at Aiwan-i-Sadr in Islamabad.
The ceremony was attended by former president Mamnoon Hussain, Prime Minister Imran Khan, top civil and military leadership, including members of the federal cabinet, the three services chiefs, parliamentarians, judges of the Supreme Court, diplomats and other well-known personalities and foreign officials.
Outgoing president Mamnoon Hussain's five-year term ended on Saturday.
Alvi, a senior Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leader was elected as the National Assembly Member 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.
Born in 1949 and a dentist by profession, Arif Alvi is among the founding members of the PTI.
While studying at the De'Montmorency College of Dentistry in Lahore, Alvihe was an active member of student unions protesting against the then-President Gen. Ayub Khan. Later, in 1979, he decided to run for office as a candidate of the Jamaat-e-Islami, for a provincial constituency in Karachi, his hometown.
The dentist tried his luck in the political arena again in 1996. That year, he joined the lesser-known and fledgling political party lead by the cricket star, Imran Khan. Soon after, he was appointed the president of the Sindh chapter of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI), and then the secretary general as the party’s ranks swelled.
While he contested the general election in 1997 and 2002, he was only successful in 2013, when he picked up NA-250 in Karachi.