ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s outgoing President Arif Alvi was accorded a farewell guard of honor on Friday on the eve of the presidential election in the South Asian country.

President Alvi’s five-year term ended in September last year, but in Pakistan, a president may continue to stay in office constitutionally until his successor is elected to the presidency.

The tenure of Alvi, who took oath on Sept. 9, 2018 after former PM Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party came to power in election held the same year, was marked by political instability and civil-military tensions, and saw the ouster of Khan in a parliamentary no-trust vote in April 2022.

Besides political instability, an economic crisis gripped Pakistan during this period, with the South Asian country barely averting a default in June last year by securing a $3 billion bailout deal from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“President Dr. Arif Alvi is being presented a farewell guard of honor by the Armed Forces of Pakistan,” read a post on the Pakistan president’s official account on X.

For Saturday’s election, Asif Ali Zardari, a former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman, and Mahmood Khan Achakzai have filed their nominations.

Zardari, who previously served as the president from 2008 till 2013, has the backing of the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, while Achakzai is backed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) opposition party.

In Pakistan, a president is elected by members of an electoral college, which comprises both upper and lower houses of parliament as well as provincial assemblies.