PM meets President-elect Zardari, congratulates on election

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister (PM) Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday arrived at Zardari House in Islamabad and congratulated President-elect Asif Ali Zardari on becoming President of Pakistan for the second time, ARY News reported.

The PM Shehbaz Sharif was welcomed by President-elect Asif Ali Zardari upon his arrival at Zardari’s house.

The Prime Minister expressed best wishes for President-elect Asif Ali Zardari.

President-elect Zardari thanked the Prime Minister for support of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) in the election for President.

Earlier in the day, Asif Ali Zardari, the joint candidate of PPP and PML-N, was elected as the 14th president of Pakistan.

Zardari received majority votes of the electoral college, comprising the parliament and provincial assemblies, paving the way for him to assume the office of President of Pakistan, for the second time in the country’s parliamentary history.

The PPP co-chairman received 411 votes while the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) backed candidate Mehmood Khan Achakzai — the home of PTI independents — only managed to get 181 votes.

In a joint sitting of the National Assembly and Senate, the coalition government’s nominee received 255 votes while the SIC-backed candidate managed just 119 votes.