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- March 10, 2024
- Kainat Shakeel
- 0
BEIJING: Following Asif Ali Zardari’s election to the presidency of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated him. In the message, XI stated that China and Pakistan are excellent neighbors, friends, partners, and brothers. He also noted that the unwavering relationship between the two nations is a product of their shared history and a priceless asset.
Xi stated that the two nations have effectively progressed their bilateral relations to a high degree, maintained close high-level exchanges in recent times, and supported one another on matters about their respective core interests and major concerns. They have also succeeded in building the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. According to Xi, there are unprecedentedly rapid changes taking place in the globe, and the strategic importance of China-Pakistan relations is becoming increasingly apparent.
Speaking with President Zardari, the Chinese leader expressed his admiration for the growing China-Pakistan relationship and his readiness to collaborate with him to uphold the historical friendship between the two countries, promote real-world collaboration in several areas, encourage the expansion of the China-Pakistan all-weather strategic cooperative partnership, and quicken.
In a vote by parliament and regional assemblies on Saturday, Asif Ali Zardari, the former president of Pakistan, was re-elected to a second term with the backing of the ruling coalition, according to the election presiding officer.
In Pakistan, the presidency is essentially ceremonial, but Zardari is seen as a master of reconciliation, and he might be able to work with the other members of the ruling coalition to agree on stabilizing the economy before requesting another IMF bailout. In addition to becoming president, Zardari will be the head of the nation’s armed forces, which have a significant influence on the formation and fall of administrations. In a live TV broadcast, Justice Amir Farooq, the presiding officer, declared the winner.
The parliament released a statement saying that Zardari had handily defeated nationalist leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai, who had received 181 votes, with 411 votes. The lower and upper houses of parliament, as well as the four provincial legislative assemblies, cast votes to choose the president.
Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Zardari, rose to prominence in politics following his wife’s murder in a suicide bombing in December 2007, when he assumed leadership of the PPP Party per her final intentions. He took office as president in 2008 and remained in office until 2013, during which time Osama bin Laden was killed in a mission conducted by American Special Forces in Pakistan in 2011.
The formation of an uncommon political agreement on the adoption of a new legal and political framework to decentralize authority and limit the presidential powers abused by former military leaders was considered to be Zardari’s biggest accomplishment during his first term. He served 11 years in prison from the early 1990s until 2004 on charges of graft, which he and his party labeled “military-backed political victimization” and which the army disputes. The allegations were never substantiated in court.