Pakistan's Zardari sworn in for second term as president
Asif Ali Zardari was voted in with 411 votes to 181 for the opposition-backed candidate, according to a local media tally of votes.
The country's newly sworn-in Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif (3R) greeting their newly-elected President Asif Ali Zardari (5R) at the Zardari House in Islamabad. / Photo: AFP
Pakistan's newly-elected President Asif Ali Zardari took the oath of office, becoming the first-ever civilian to serve a second term in the country's highest office.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa administered the oath of office to Zardari during a ceremony at the Presidency in the capital Islamabad.
The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the three armed services chiefs, Zardari's son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who was foreign minister in the coalition government until last year and also the chairman of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), and others.
He previously served as president from 2008 to 2013 under his own party's government.
Pakistan's National Assembly votes for Asif Ali Zardari as the country's next president pic.twitter.com/VzqBjWhPcc
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Zardari, 68, co-chairman of the centre-left PPP, was elected the country's 14th president for a five-year term on Saturday by lawmakers from the National Assembly as well as four provincial assemblies.
The widower of two-time Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and the ruling coalition’s candidate, Zardari convincingly defeated Mahmood Khan Achakzai, a veteran politician from southwestern Balochistan province, and a candidate of the opposition Sunni Ittehad Council, a religiopolitical group that has also been joined by lawmakers from jailed ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
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