ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday congratulated President Asif Ali Zardari after he was sworn in as Pakistan’s 14th president, as the South Asian country navigates a trio of political, economic and political crises.
Veteran politician and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Zardari took oath on Sunday to serve as the country’s president for another term. Zardari secured 411 votes in the indirect electoral contest held in Pakistan’s parliament and provincial assemblies on Saturday. His opponent who was supported by the Imran Khan-backed Sunni Ittehad Council, Mahmood Khan Achakzai, could only bag 181 votes.
“The custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and his highness, the crown prince, congratulates Asif Ali Zardari on the occasion of his election and swearing-in as the president of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) wrote on social media platform X on Sunday.
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy strong trade, defense and brotherly relations. The Kingdom is home to over 2.7 million Pakistani expatriates, serving as the top destination for remittances for the cash-strapped South Asian country.
Felicitations for the newly elected Pakistani president also came from Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan Dr. Reza Amiri Moghadam on Sunday.
During his last tenure as president from 2008 to 2013, Zardari ushered in constitutional reforms, including the 18th amendment, to ensure greater autonomy to provinces, and rolled back presidential powers.
On Friday, his predecessor Alvi was accorded a farewell guard of honor. 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.
The tenure of Alvi, who took oath on Sept. 9, 2018 after ex-PM 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).
