Pakistan is all set to choose its next president today. The country elects its president through the electoral college. Both houses of the parliament and four provincial assemblies vote for the president. Dr. Arif Alvi from PTI, Aitezaz Ahsan from PPP and Maulana Fazlur Rehman from the joint opposition are contesting for the seat. Dr. Arif Alvi of PTI is the strong candidate for President as his party has significant votes in National Assembly, Punjab Assembly, and KPK assembly and also in Balochistan assembly.
#PresidentialElection: 706 votes in the Electoral College
354 votes needed to win https://t.co/Z22Gk5ytmb pic.twitter.com/3fwNE6zt11— Radio Pakistan (@RadioPakistan) September 4, 2018
Who Is Dr. Arif Alvi
Dr. Arif Alvi, the PTI candidate for the president who is confident about his victory, started his journey five decades before from the student politics. Alvi who was the student union leader at Montmorency College of Dentistry in Lahore calls himself the staunch proponent of democracy.
Dr. Alvi is one of the founding members of Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI). He remained the member of the party’s central executive council for 1996 and later became party’s president for Sindh province. Alvi later became party’s Vice President in 2001 and secretary general in 2006. He remained on this post until 2013.
Dr. Arif Alvi contested election for the Sindh assembly seat in 1997 and 2002 but didn’t succeed. He didn’t fight the 2008 elections as his party boycotted them. In 2013, Alvi finally succeeded from NA 250 from PTI’s ticket. In 2018 General Election he won from NA 247 by getting more than 90,000 votes.
A Likely President of Pakistan
Dr. Arif Alvi is likely to be the 13th president of Pakistan, as his party enjoys a majority in assemblies after the opposition has failed to field a joint candidate against him. Further PPP candidate Aitezaz Ahsan is also the strong nominee for president as people of Pakistan want to see the person of such caliber on this seat. But, he is not likely to get enough votes to make it to the position of President.
In today's #PresidentialElection:
Arif Alvi is likely to poll 337.91 votes (excluding the undecided parties and independents in each house).
Maulana Fazl ur Rehman to receive 199.1.
Aitzaz Ahsan 115.44 votes out of the total 706. https://t.co/kky1KsL8R2 pic.twitter.com/5pbQzIMJKd— Benazir Shah (@Benazir_Shah) September 4, 2018
If Aitezaz Ahsan had contested against Dr. Arif Alvi as a joint candidate of the opposition, he was more likely to win the seat. But the feud between PPP and PMLN is less likely to make this happen.
Dr. Arif Alvi as President
The President is a head of state in Pakistan, but he/she doesn’t have a much decisive role to play. Pakistan is a parliamentary democracy, and most of the power rests with the prime minister.
According to media reports, Dr. Arif Alvi has opined that he wants to play the role of an active president of Pakistan who will work to sort out the issues of water scarcity, injustice and help promote health and education sectors.
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