President Asif Ali Zardari Monday was presented with a guard of honour by smartly tuned contingents of the armed forces a day after he was sworn in as the country’s 14th president.
During the ceremony held at Islamabad’s Aiwan-e-Sadr, Zardari, who arrived at the ceremony in the traditional horse-driven buggy, inspected the guard of honour and shook hands with the officers and staff members of the President House.
It’s pertinent to mention that it is a traditional practice that a newly elected president, as well as an outgoing one such as Arif Alvi, receives a guard of honour at the Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The development comes a day after Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa administered Zardari’s oath as the country’s head of state after he secured 411 electoral votes in parliament and all four provincial assemblies with the backing of allied parties against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-backed Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) nominee Mahmood Khan Achakzai’s 181 votes.
It is pertinent to know that Zardari’s win came after the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) agreed to join hands over government formation in the Centre with the former playing an important role in the election of Shehbaz Sharif as the country’s prime minister.
However, in exchange, the PPP got to bring its own chief minister in Balochistan as well as several constitutional posts including Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa governors, Senate chairman and deputy speakers in the national and Balochistan assemblies.
The PPP and the PML-N also have the backing of various political parties including the likes of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) and others.
