By Islamuddin Sajid
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan's newly elected President Arif Alvi is among the founding members of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Party (PTI).
Before joining PTI he had a long association with the Jamaat-e-Islami, a mainstream religious party in the country. His father Habib Ur Rehman Elahi Alvi was also a close aide of Jamaat-e-Islami founder and renowned scholar of the sub-continent, Syed Abul A’la Maudoodi.
Alvi, a dentist by profession, was born in 1949 in the southeastern port city Karachi, two years after his family migrated to Pakistan following the end of British colonial rule.
During his university years, Alvi was active in student politics and participated in several protests against then-military dictator Gen. Ayub Khan.
In 1997 and 2002, he contested for a seat in the National and provincial assemblies in Karachi from PTI, but did not win.
In 2013, he won the first National Assembly seat from Karachi, which he retained in the recent July 25 general election.
Alvi has four children who are all married.
“[I] Enjoy life with grandchildren tremendously and consider them as one of [the] greatest joy and pleasure of my life,” Alvi wrote on his website.
LIST OF THE PRESIDENTS OF PAKISTAN
1. Iskander Mirza – 1956 to 1958
2. Gen. Ayub Khan – 1962 to 1969
3. Gen. Yahya Khan – 1969 to 1971
4. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – 1971 to 1973
5. Fazal Ilahi Chaudhry – 1973 to 1978
6. Gen. Muhammad Zia-Ul-Haq – 1978 to 1988
7. Ghulam Ishaq Khan – 1988 to 1993
8. Farooq Leghari – 1993 to 1997
9. Muhammad Rafiq Tarar – 1998 to 2001
10. Gen. Pervez Musharraf – 2007 to 2008
11. Asif Ali Zardari – 2008 to 2013
12. Mamnoon Hussain – 2013 to 2018
