The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf on Saturday confirmed the nomination of party leader Dr Arif Alvi for the post of president.

The nomination was confirmed by party spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry on Twitter.

The announcement of PTI's presidential nominee comes hours after its chairman, Imran Khan, was sworn in as the 22nd prime minister of the country.

The Election Commission of Pakistan had announced on Thursday that the presidential election will be held on September 4 — five days before the expiry of the five-year term of President Mamnoon Hussain.

Under Article 41 (4) of the Constitution, election to the office of the president is to be held not earlier than 30 days before expiry of the term of the president in office.

The president is elected by an electoral college comprising members of the Senate, National Assembly and four provincial assemblies. Voting is held through a secret ballot.

As per the 1973 Constitution, Alvi's election to the National Assembly on the hotly contested NA-247 (Karachi) seat will stand null and void once he takes oath as the country’s president, because an elected member of the parliament cannot hold the office of the president of Pakistan.

Section 43(2) of the 1973 Constitution states:

The president shall not be a candidate for election as a member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) or a provincial assembly; and, if a member of Parliament or a provincial assembly is elected as president, his seat in Parliament) or ... the Provincial Assembly shall become vacant on the day he enters upon his office.

Who is Arif Alvi?

A dentist by profession, Dr Alvi is among the founding members of the PTI. He had contested for Sindh Assembly seats in the general elections of 1997 and 2002, but remained unsuccessful.

He was appointed the secretary general of PTI in 2006, a position he served until 2013.

He won from NA-250 constituency of Karachi in the 2013 elections and was appointed the president of PTI's Sindh chapter in 2016.

In the July 25, 2018 general elections, he was elected to the National Assembly from Karachi's NA-247 after bagging 91,020 votes. In comparison, his rival, Syed Zaman Ali Jaffrey of the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan, managed only 24,680 votes.

Schedule for presidential election