Daily Times

The presidential candidate for the incoming coalition government, PPPP President Asif Ali Zardari, will face off against Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) candidate PkMAP chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai.

The nomination papers for both candidates were filed in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday. Farooq H. Naik and Saleem Mandviwala filed Zardari’s papers while PTI leaders Sardar Latif Khosa and Omar Ayub Khan filed the papers for Achakzai before Chief Justice IHC Aamer Farooq – the presiding officer for the presidential polls.

According to the ECP schedule, polling for the presidential election will be held on March 9 from 10 am to 4 pm, while candidates vying for the constitutional post of the country can submit their nomination papers until Saturday noon in Islamabad and four provincial capitals – Karachi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.

Nomination papers will undergo scrutiny by the returning officer in Islamabad by 10 am on Monday (March 4).

The candidates have the option to withdraw their nomination papers before the returning officer in Islamabad until noon on Tuesday (March 5).

On the same day, the list of candidates will be made public.

Incumbent President Dr Arif Alvi is already on an extended tenure after completing his five-year term on Sept 9 last year.

Article 44(1) of the Constitution says that the president will hold office for a term of five years from the day he assumes charge, but he continues to hold the office until a successor is chosen.

Dr Alvi is the country’s fourth democratically elected president to complete the five-year term. The three presidents before Dr Alvi who completed their full terms were Chaudhary Fazal Elahi (fifth president, from 1973 to 1978), Asif Ali Zardari (11th, from 2008 to 2013), and Mamnoon Hussain (12th, from 2013 to 2018).

Therefore, Dr Alvi is the third consecutive president to have a full term and the first one to have an extended term due to an incomplete electoral college, which comprises the National Assembly, Senate and the four provincial assemblies.