Asif Ali Zardari

Ghulam Hussain Malik

The chief of the Zardari tribe and the widower of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari served as a member of the National Assembly and federal minister for environment during the second term of his wife’s premiership.

His last position in the government of Pakistan was as a senator until 1999 when the Senate and assemblies were dissolved by General Pervez Musharraf, who took over the reins of the government in a coup against the-then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

In 1990, he was arrested on charges of blackmail, based on allegations that he attached a bomb to a businessman, Murtaza Bukhari, and forced him to withdraw money from his bank account. However, the charges were not proven and he was released from prison in 1993 when Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) took power.

During the final days of his wife’s second premiership, just before her government was dissolved by the-then President Farooq Leghari, his brother-in-law Murtaza Bhutto was assassinated. He was subsequently arrested on murder charges in 1996. The verdict was set aside following a major scandal, when audiotapes titled ‘Murdering Justice’ were revealed. These tapes proved Zardari had nothing to do with the murder and the Accountability Bureau was blackmailing the judge to issue a guilty verdict.

He was kept in custody from 1997 to 2004 on charges ranging from corruption to murder, all of which were never proven. He was granted bail and released in November 2004 when a judge said the cases were all false.

However, he was rearrested on December 21, 2004 after his failure to attend a hearing in a murder trial in Karachi. He was charged with conspiracy in the 1996 killing of a judge and his son. These charges coincided with his plans to launch massive protests in the country.

After release from jail, Zardari lived in New York with also having a home in Dubai. He suffered from diabetes and a spinal ailment as a result of his prolonged imprisonment.

In August 2004, Zardari acknowledged owning a £4.35 million estate in Surrey, England (including a 20-room mansion and two farms on 365 acres or 1.5 square kilometres of land), which the Pakistani authorities alleged was bought with the proceeds of corruption. However, a British court cleared him of these allegations in 2006.

Zardari spent a total of 11 years in prison without ever being convicted. He returned to Pakistan hours after his spouse Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. He was elected by the PPP as its co-chairman with his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari a few days after burial of Benazir Bhutto and led the party in the February 18, 2008 general elections. Although he did not contest election, his party won majority seats in the National Assembly as well as Sindh Assembly, enabling him to virtually assume the role of a kingmaker.

Contrary to his past image, Zardari proved to be a sagacious leader and entered into a coalition with former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to form governments in the centre as well as in the Sindh province. His party also joined the coalition government in the NWFP led by the Awami National Party and also formed coalition government in the Balochistan province with joining the PML-N-led government in the Punjab province.

He signed four accords with PML-N supreme leader Nawaz Sharif on restoration of deposed judges but backtracked from all of them, saying that the political agreements were not word of the Holy Quran and Sunnah. This led the PML-N to quit the ruling coalition and opt for opposition benches in the National Assembly.

After General (Retd) Pervez Musharraf resigned as president of the country on August 18, 2008, the PPP named Zardari as its candidate for the presidential election while the rival PML-N and PML-Q named Justice (Retd) Saeeduzzaman Siddiqi and Mushahid Hussain Sayed as their candidates respectively for the top office of the country.