Asif Ali Zardari

Asif Ali Zardari (born July 26, 1955, Karachi, Pakistan) is the president of Pakistan (2008–13; 2024– ) and is the first to have completed a full term in office. Since the December 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, his wife and the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), he has been the de facto leader of the PPP. His son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, also plays a prominent role in the party as its chair.

Early life and marriage

Zardari—the son of Hakim Ali Zardari, a Sindhi landlord, businessman, and politician—was educated at Saint Patrick’s School in Karachi and later studied business in London. He gained a reputation as a playboy and gadfly for his easygoing lifestyle; an avid polo player and an intense competitor, Zardari demonstrated little interest in the political scene. His betrothal to Bhutto, who was the daughter of former president (1971–73) and prime minister (1973–77) Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and whom he had first met five days prior to the public announcement of their engagement, surprised many observers. On December 18, 1987, the two were married in an arranged and relatively simple ceremony, and they went on to have three children: a son, Bilawal, and two daughters, Bakhtwar and Aseefa.

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Pakistan: Pakistan under Zardari

Entrance into political life

The couple had been married less than a year when Pres. Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq was killed, ending more than a decade of military rule. Bhutto’s subsequent success at the polls ushered her into office as prime minister. In 1990 her tenure was cut short by corruption-related scandal, however, and both Zardari and his wife were the focus of attacks from opposition politicians as well as disgruntled members of the PPP, Bhutto’s own party. Arrested on kidnapping and extortion charges, Zardari was imprisoned in 1990, and, following his release in 1993, corruption allegations against him multiplied (some labeled him “Mr. Ten Percent,” alleging he took kickbacks on large government contracts during Bhutto’s tenure in office).

Zardari served as a member of the National Assembly from 1990 to 1993—during which time he was periodically released from prison to attend sessions—and from 1993 to 1996. After Bhutto’s return to power in 1993, he served as minister of the environment (1993–96) and federal minister for investment (1995–96) in her government. Zardari aggressively sought control of the PPP, but he was the subject of ever-increasing criticism from opponents within and outside the party. In addition, Zardari was deeply involved in a Bhutto family feud led by Bhutto’s brother, Murtaza, and mother, Nusrat; the conflict between Zardari and Murtaza over leadership of the Bhutto clan ruptured the PPP and destabilized Bhutto’s government. The Murtaza-Zardari rivalry ended abruptly on September 20, 1996, when Murtaza was shot and killed by police.

Zardari was implicated in Murtaza’s death, and, following the second dissolution of Bhutto’s government in November 1996, he was arrested on charges that included corruption, money laundering, and murder. Although never convicted, Zardari was imprisoned from 1997 to 2004; he was elected to the Senate from his jail cell during this time. The toll exacted on Zardari’s health by his imprisonment was considerable. Following his release, Zardari sought medical treatment in the United States for psychological distress. He returned to Pakistan with Bhutto’s resumption of political activity in 2007 and was given amnesty for his alleged offenses. Following Bhutto’s death in December 2007, Zardari took on the reins of the PPP and made his college-aged son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the nominal chairman.

First term as president (2008–13)

In the parliamentary elections of February 2008, the PPP captured one-third of the available seats, while the party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif won one-fourth of the seats. In March the two parties formed a coalition government. Although disagreements destabilized the administration in the months following its formation, in August 2008 Zardari and Sharif led the movement to impeach Pres. Pervez Musharraf. To avoid further public embarrassment, Musharraf resigned his office. Sharif and Zardari were not reconciled, however, and their sustained feuding ultimately caused Sharif to withdraw his party from the coalition. Zardari easily won the September 2008 presidential elections.

Friction between the two rivals intensified further in early 2009, when the Supreme Court voted to disqualify Sharif’s brother Shehbaz Sharif from his position as chief minister of the Punjab and to uphold a ban prohibiting Sharif himself from holding political office (the ban stemmed from his 2000 hijacking conviction). Sharif alleged that the court’s rulings were politically motivated and backed by Zardari. Meanwhile, the status of the Supreme Court judges dismissed under Musharraf who had yet to be reinstated—one of the issues that had undermined the Sharif-Zardari coalition—remained another major source of contention. Faced with the prospect of a Sharif-led protest in the capital, in March 2009 the government agreed to reinstate Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry and a number of other Supreme Court judges who had not yet been returned to their posts (Shehbaz Sharif was also returned to his position shortly thereafter). The move was seen as a political victory for Sharif and a significant concession on the part of Zardari, who is thought to have opposed Chaudhry’s return because of the possibility that the amnesty Zardari had enjoyed under Musharraf might be overturned. Indeed, in December 2009 the Pakistani Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional the 2007 amnesty protecting politicians accused of corruption. Zardari was among the thousands of people affected by the ruling, which essentially reactivated cases against them.

Zardari’s term was marked by increased U.S. involvement in Pakistan. The United States had expanded its use of drone strikes in Pakistan to target Pashtun militants who were waging a guerrilla campaign against international forces and the Afghan government in the Afghanistan War. In 2011 the United States located and killed Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad not far from Pakistan’s premier military academy, striking a blow to Pakistan’s image internationally for its failure to capture the al-Qaeda leader.

Zardari also faced daunting domestic issues. An unusually heavy monsoon season in 2010 led to unprecedented flooding (see Pakistan floods of 2010) affecting some one-fourth of the country and leaving about 14 million people homeless and millions more susceptible to malnutrition and disease. Zardari was heavily criticized for the government’s poor response, particularly when he embarked on a scheduled tour of Europe instead of attending to the relief efforts. In 2011 controversy erupted over the extrajudicial killing of Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab, for his criticism of a blasphemy law implemented decades before under Zia-ul-Haq.

Low approval ratings led to the PPP losing legislative elections in 2013, and Zardari declined to run for a second term as president as a result. Still, he became the first president in Pakistan’s history to serve a full term.

Political life after the presidency

Zardari continued to play a key role in the PPP in the years after his presidency. He left the country in 2015, however, amid tensions with the security establishment. Shortly after his return in late 2016, he announced his intention to contest the 2018 legislative elections, after which he entered the National Assembly as one of the leaders of the opposition. As a growing number of opposition figures were pursued on corruption charges, including Nawaz Sharif, Zardari himself was arrested in June 2019 and released on bail in December. He continued to face charges of money laundering, however, and his son, Bilawal, began taking on a greater role in party leadership.

Second term as president (2024– )

In 2023, as Pakistan geared up for its general elections set for February 2024, the PPP announced Bilawal as its candidate for prime minister and Zardari as its candidate for president. When the election delivered no decisive winner, the PPP entered into a coalition agreement with Nawaz Sharif’s party to elect Shehbaz Sharif as prime minister and Zardari as president.