NEW DELHI: Asif Ali Zardari, a businessman and veteran of Pakistan’s politics, was on Saturday elected president for a second time.
Zardari, 68, the widower of Pakistan’s assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, won the presidential election against Mahmood Khan Achakzai.
He was backed by an alliance that included his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).
Achakzai was backed by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), an alliance that has absorbed former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) legislators who won as independents in the Feb 8 general elections.
Pakistan’s president is elected through an indirect vote, with the electoral college comprising national and provincial assembly members.
Zardari earlier served as president between 2008 and 2013. – Bernama
