Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari is a Pakistani politician who has been the 14th president of Pakistan since 2024. A member of the Pakistan People's Party, he served as the 11th president from 2008 to 2013. He served as executive president from 2008 to 2013 due to 17 amendment to the constitution of Pakistan and co chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party. He is the first Pakistani head of state to be born after the country's independence and the widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.
The son of Hakim Ali Zardari, a landowner and tribal chief from Sindh, Zardari rose to prominence after his marriage to Benazir Bhutto in 1987, who became the Prime Minister of Pakistan after her election in 1988. When Bhutto's government was dismissed by President Ghulam Ishaq Khan in 1990, Zardari was widely criticized for involvement in corruption scandals that led to its collapse. When Bhutto was reelected in 1993, Zardari served as Federal Investment Minister and Chairperson of Pakistan Environmental Protection Council. There were increasing tensions between Bhutto's brother Murtaza and Zardari, and Murtaza was killed by police in Karachi on 20 September 1996. Bhutto's government was dismissed a month later by President Farooq Leghari, and Zardari was arrested and indicted for Murtaza's murder and for corruption.
Although incarcerated, he nominally served in Parliament after being elected to the National Assembly in 1990 and Senate in 1997. He was released from jail in 2004 and went into self-exile to Dubai, but returned when Bhutto was assassinated on 27 December 2007. As the new co-chairman of the PPP, he led his party to victory in the 2008 general elections. He spearheaded a coalition that forced military ruler Pervez Musharraf to resign, and was elected president on 6 September 2008. He was acquitted of various criminal charges the same year.
As president, Zardari remained a strong American ally in the war in Afghanistan, despite prevalent public disapproval of the United States following the Raymond Davis incident and the NATO attack in Salala in 2011. Domestically, Zardari achieved the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 2010, which constitutionally reduced his presidential powers. His attempt to prevent the reinstatement of Supreme Court judges failed in the face of massive protests led by his political rival Nawaz Sharif. The restored Supreme Court dismissed the PPP's elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani for contempt of court in 2012 after Gillani refused to write to the Government of Switzerland to reopen corruption cases against Zardari. Zardari's tenure was also criticised for mishandling nationwide floods in 2010, and growing terrorist violence. Following multiple bombings of Hazaras in Quetta in early 2013, Zardari dismissed his provincial government in Balochistan.
Towards the end of his term, Zardari recorded abysmally low approval ratings, ranging from 11 to 14%. After the PPP was heavily defeated in the 2013 general election, Zardari became the country's first elected president to complete his constitutional term on 9 September 2013. His legacy remains divisive, with political observers accusing his administration of corruption and cronyism. However, he became president of Pakistan again in March 2024 due to a coalition agreement which was reached following the 2024 Pakistani general election.
Early life and education
Zardari was born on 26 July 1955 in Karachi, Federal Capital Territory to a prominent Sindhi-Baloch family, and received his upbringing and education in Karachi. He belongs to the Zardari family and is the only son of Hakim Ali Zardari, the chief of the Baloch Zardari tribe and prominent landowner, and Bilquis Sultana Zardari. His paternal grandmother was of Iraqi descent, while his mother was the granddaughter of Hassan Ali Effendi, a Sindhi educationist with Turkish roots who is known as the founder of the Sindh Madressatul Islam.In his youth, he led a polo team known as the Zardari Four and pracised boxing. His father owned Bambino—a famous cinema in Karachi—and donated movie equipment to his school. He appeared in a 1969 movie, Salgira, as a child.
Academic record and disputed claims
Zardari's academic background remains a question mark. He received his primary education from Karachi Grammar School. His official biography says he graduated from Cadet College, Petaro in 1972. He went to St Patrick's High School, Karachi from 1973 to 1974; a school clerk says he failed his final examination there. In March 2008, he claimed he had graduated from the London School of Business Studies with a bachelor of education degree in the early 1970s. Zardari's official biography states he also attended Pedinton School in Britain. His British education, however, has not been confirmed, and a search did not turn up any Pedinton School in London. The issue of his diploma was contentious because a 2002 rule required candidates for Parliament to hold a college degree, but the rule was overturned by Pakistan's Supreme Court in April 2008.Political career
Early career and Benazir Bhutto era
Zardari's initial political career was unsuccessful. In 1983, he lost an election for a district council seat in Nawabshah, a city of Sindh, where his family owned thousands of acres of farmland. He then went into real estate.He married Benazir Bhutto on 18 December 1987. The marriage, which had been arranged, as is customary in Pakistan, was initially described as an unlikely match. The lavish sunset ceremony in Karachi was followed by immense night celebrations that included over 100,000 people. The marriage enhanced Bhutto's political position in a country where older unmarried women are frowned upon. Zardari deferred to his wife's wishes by agreeing to stay out of politics.
In 1988, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq died when his plane exploded in midair. A few months later, Bhutto became Pakistan's first female prime minister when her party won 94 of 207 seats contested in the 1988 elections.
Involvement in the first Bhutto Administration and first imprisonment
He generally stayed out of his wife's first administration, but he and his associates became entangled in corruption cases linked to the government. He was largely blamed for the collapse of the Bhutto administration.After the dismissal of Bhutto's government in August 1990, Benazir Bhutto and Zardari were prohibited from leaving the country by security forces under the direction of the Pakistan Army. During the interim government between August and October, caretaker prime minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, a Bhutto rival, initiated investigations of corruption by the Bhutto administration. Jatoi accused Zardari of using his wife's political position to charge a ten percent commission for obtaining permission to set up any project or to receive loans. He was tagged with the nickname "Mr. Ten Percent".
He was arrested on 10 October 1990 on charges relating to kidnapping and extortion. The charges alleged an extortion scheme that involved tying a supposed bomb to a British businessman's leg. The Bhutto family considered the indictment politically motivated and fabricated. In the October 1990 elections, he was elected to the National Assembly while in jail. Bhutto and the PPP staged a walkout from the inaugural session of the National Assembly to protest Zardari's incarceration. He posted $20,000 bail, but his release was blocked by a government ordinance that removed a court's power to release suspects being tried in the terrorist court, which fast-track trials for alleged terrorists. The ordinance was later revoked and a special court acquitted him of bank fraud and conspiracy to murder political opponents. He was freed in February 1993. In March 1994, Zardari was acquitted of bank fraud charges. All other corruption charges relating to Bhutto's first term were dropped or thrown out of the courts.
On 25 March 1991, the hijackers aboard Singapore Airlines Flight 117 demanded Zardari's release among other demands. The hijackers were killed by Singapore Commandos.
Political involvement in the second Bhutto Administration
In April 1993, he became one of the 18 cabinet ministers in the caretaker government that succeeded Nawaz Sharif's first abridged premiership. The caretaker government lasted until the July elections. After Bhutto's election, he served as her Investment Minister, chief of the intelligence bureau, and the head of the Federal Investigation Agency. In February 1994, Benazir sent Zardari to meet with Saddam Hussein in Iraq to deliver medicine in exchange for three detained Pakistanis arrested on the ambiguous Kuwait-Iraq border. In April 1994, Zardari denied allegations that he was wielding unregulated influence as a spouse and acting as "de-facto Prime Minister". In March 1995, he was appointed chairman of the new Environment Protection Council.During the beginning of the second Bhutto Administration, a Bhutto family feud between Benazir and her mother, Nusrat Bhutto, surfaced over the political future of Murtaza Bhutto, Nusrat's son and Benazir's younger brother. Benazir thanked Zardari for his support. In September 1996, Murtaza and seven others died in a shootout with police in Karachi, while the city was undergoing a three-year civil war. At Murtaza's funeral, Nusrat accused Benazir and Zardari of being responsible and vowed to pursue prosecution. Ghinwa Bhutto, Murtaza's widow, also accused Zardari of being behind his killing. President Farooq Leghari, who would dismiss the Bhutto government seven weeks after Murtaza's death, also suspected Benazir and Zardari's involvement. Several of Pakistan's leading newspapers alleged that Zardari wanted his brother-in-law out of the way because of Murtaza's activities as head of a breakaway faction of the PPP.
In November 1996, Bhutto's government was dismissed by Leghari primarily because of corruption and Murtaza's death. Zardari was arrested in Lahore while attempting to flee the country to Dubai.