Arif Alvi: Pakistan's new President and his compelling India link

Pakistan’s newly elected President Dr Arif Alvi has an interesting link with India. According to a short biography of Alvi on the website of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, his father was a dentist of India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Being a son of Nehru’s dentist is not the only connection Alvi shares with India. And his family migrated to Pakistan from India after partition. He is the second Pakistani President after Pervez Musharraf whose family migrated from India.

Alvi’s predecessors Mamnoon Hussain’s family came from Agra and Musharraf’s parents migrated from New Delhi.

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His father Dr Habib ur Rehman Elahi Alvi “a dentist to Jawaharlal Nehru and the family has letters from Mr Nehru to Dr Alvi in their possession,” according to the official PTI website.

Alvi, a close ally of Prime Minister Imran Khan and one of the founding members of the PTI, was elected as the 13^th President of Pakistan on Tuesday.

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Alvi, also a former dentist defeated Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) Aitzaz Ahsan and the Pakistan Muslim League-N nominee Maulana Fazl ur Rehman in a three-way fight.

Alvi started his political career about five decades ago when he was a student of de’Montmonrency College of Dentistry, an affiliate of the University of Punjab in Lahore. He was part of the students’ wing of Jamaat-i-Islami and protested against military ruler Ayub Khan.

(With PTI Inputs)