President of Pakistan, Dr Arif Alvi has completed his five years constitutional tenure in the Aiwan-e-Sadar on 8th September but he will remain on the top slot of the country, till the completion of his electoral college that comprises National Assembly, Senate and all provincial assemblies.
Now the National Assembly and provincial assemblies have been dissolved and new assemblies would be formed after general elections. The constitution of the country said that the election for the President must be held within 30 days after the general elections. It means that President Alvi would administer the oath from the next elected Prime Minister too.
As a head of the state, he enjoys the power of supreme commander of armed forces of Pakistan and he also managed to maintain good working relations with the services chiefs, especially with the two army chiefs that took charge during his tenure.
If we look back towards the tenure of Dr Alvi as President, who is foreign qualified dentist has proved himself as an active President as compared to his other predecessors, as most of the former Presidents restricted themselves to the convocations of different universities or receiving credentials from the newly appointed diplomats posted to Islamabad only.
But as far as Alvi is concerned, he continued holding meetings with people of different walks of life, especially political leadership, like former President Asif Zardari . Alvi is a simple and straightforward man. He would be remembered as an out-spoken President, like one of his precursor Ghulam Ishaq Khan, as on a number of occasions, he commented so candidly on the national affairs that one could not expect veracity from the man who is holding top post.
Though the few controversies were developed during the tenure of PDM led government regrading hi personality especially when he did not administer the oath of Prime Minister from Shahbaz Sharif after PDM’s government was formed but later on, he molded flexibility in his approach and tried to be a supportive head of state ,for the head of the government.
Another matter of signature on the amendments on official secret act and army act came to surface, when he used his ‘X’ (Formerly Twitter) account in which he denied that the acts were signed by him.
During Alvi’s tenure, a rift-like situation was seen with the Chief Election Commissioner on the date of the next elections but his viewpoint was constitutionally correct in the matter.
The third controversy came on the social media when in the recent past he gave a statement for a raise in his salary, but it was his personal opinion which can be ignored as he did not send any summary to the parliament in this regard.
We can divide Arif Alvi’s tenure into two fractions. The first one was the period when his own party, Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf was in power and all went well for him.
But the second part of his presidency proved to be tough for him when PTI’s government was removed as a vote of no confidence against the former Prime Minister Imran Khan was adopted by the parliament and the opposition coalition, Pakistan Democratic Alliance came to power.
But by using the wisdom, President Arif Alvi tried to keep good working relations with the Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif despite the political differences with him.