Draft:Arif Alvi
| Arif Alvi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Name | Arif Alvi |
| Personal Details | |
| Birth Place | Karachi, Pakistan |
| Religion | Islam |
Arif Alvi is a politician and the 13th President of Pakistan since 2018. He joined Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan in 1977 and left Jamaat-e-Islami in 1988. In 1996, he joined the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. In 2018, he was accused due to the 2014 clashes between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party workers and the police, and the killing of three police officers in the clashes, and was acquitted by the Islamabad anti-terrorism court.
Biography
Arif Alvi was born on 29 July 1949 in Karachi, Pakistan. His father was the dentist of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India, who had migrated to Karachi after the formation of Pakistan. His father opened a dental clinic in Saddar town upon coming to Karachi. His father Habib ur Rahman Elahi Alvi was politically affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan.
After completing his primary education in Karachi, he came to Lahore in 1967 to continue his studies. He received his Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) degree from De Montmorency Dental College, Lahore. He obtained his Master's degree in Prosthodontics from the University of Michigan in 1975 and also a Master's in Orthodontics from the University of the Pacific, San Francisco in 1984. After returning to Pakistan, he practiced dentistry and established the Alvi Dental Hospital [1].
Arif Alvi has four children.
Career
Ambassador for Dentistry
In 1997, Arif Alvi became the Ambassador of the American Board of Orthodontics America. He drafted the constitution of the Pakistan Dental Association and became its president. In 1981, he was the president of the first Pakistan International Dental Conference and the president of the 28th Dental Congress of Asia and Oceania. He was the head of the Orthodontics Department of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan. In 2006, he was elected as the President of the Federation of Dentistry of Asia and Oceania. The following year, he became a consultant to the FDI World Dental Federation.
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Political activities
While studying at De Montmorency Dental College, he was an active member of the student union. He was associated with the youth wing of Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, Jamiat-e-Talaba-e-Islam, and later became the president of the college student union.
In the early days, he was an opponent of Ayub Khan, the president at the time, and was banned from political activities at that time. When Zulfikar Ali Bhutto won the election on 7 January 1977, he became politically active again.
Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan
He also contested for the Sindh Provincial Assembly seat from Karachi representing Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan in 1979 but failed to win the election. He resigned from Jamaat-e-Islami and left the party in 1988. Arif Alvi attributes the reason for leaving the party to his awareness of their narrow-minded view of politics and always believes that "Honest leadership is the real solution to Pakistan's problems".
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf
He joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 1996. He participated in drafting the PTI party constitution. In 1996, he became a member of the party's Central Executive Council for one year, and in 1997, he became the president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Sindh. He contested as a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf candidate for the Sindh Provincial Assembly seat from Pakistan's general election PS-89 (South Karachi) in 1997, but was defeated. He became the Vice President of PTI in 2001.
Entry into the National Assembly
Arif Alvi won the seat of the National Assembly of Pakistan from constituency NA-250 (Karachi-12) in the 2013 general elections as a candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf for the first time. In the 2013 elections, he was the only representative of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf from Sindh who obtained the necessary votes. He was elected as the president of PTI Sindh chapter in 2016.
Presidency
On 18 August 2018, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) nominated him as their candidate for the Presidency of Pakistan. He was elected as the thirteenth President of Pakistan on 4 September 2018. He defeated Fazl-ur-Rehman (184 votes) and Aitzaz Ahsan (124 votes) with 352 votes.
After being elected President, Arif Alvi thanked Prime Minister Imran Khan and his political coalition for supporting him. He resigned from the National Assembly on 5 September 2018.
He is the second dentist in the world to hold the presidency, the first being Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the President of Turkmenistan. He is the third President of Pakistan whose family migrated from India to Pakistan after the partition of India. Xi Jinping, the President of China, and Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar, congratulated Arif Alvi on his victory in the presidential election and expressed hope that relations between Pakistan, China, and Qatar would improve under the new leadership. On 9 September 2018, Arif Alvi was sworn in as the thirteenth President of Pakistan, preceded in this position by Mamnoon Hussain. On 17 September 2018, he spoke in the National Assembly as President for the first time [1].
2014 Riots and Allegations of Involvement
In 2014, Arif Alvi, who was a representative of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, was accused during the attack on television and Pakistan Parliament buildings during the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) sit-in on 31 August 2014. According to the police, activists of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) raided the television and Pakistan Parliament buildings, and according to the police, killed three people, injured 26 people, and 60 people were arrested. According to the police, on 31 August 2014, PTI and PAT workers marched towards the Parliament House and the Prime Minister's House and clashed with police stationed on Constitution Avenue [2].
He appeared in the Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court in 2018 and stated in his defense: I tried to study the history of Islam, where I see no exception. The Constitution of Pakistan gives me immunity but I do not want to take this immunity. The Caliphs appeared in courts with great dignity. I am bound by the Constitution of Pakistan, but the Quran is the greatest constitution. He requested the judiciary to expedite the handling of cases because cases usually take generations and this process must end.
With the verdict of the Islamabad Anti-Terrorism Court, Arif Alvi was released on bail and the court stated its reason as: that Arif Alvi has been elected President, therefore he will enjoy immunity and no criminal case can be filed against him.[3].