Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP)’s top leader Asif Ali Zardari, infamous as “Mr. 10 Percent” because of his alleged corruption, on Saturday, became President for the second time—the only civilian to hold the post twice since the nation came into existence in 1947.
In 2013, he also became the first President to complete his full five-year term.
Zardari, the widower of Pakistan’s slain first female premier Benazir Bhutto, was “re-elected” as the 14th President of Pakistan on Saturday, the media reported.
Newly sworn-in lawmakers in the National Assembly voted for him on Saturday under the terms of a coalition deal brokered after February 8 elections marred by rigging claims.
Under that deal, Zardari’s PPP took the presidency, while its historic rivals the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party secured the Prime Minister’s position for Shehbaz Sharif, who was officially sworn in on Monday.
Initially a political sidekick to his wife Benazir, Zardari was stained by a bevy of corruption and other allegations, including absurd kidnapping plots and accepting kickbacks he lavished on hoards of jewelry.
Despite a reputation as “Mr. Ten Percent” — the alleged cut he took for rubber-stamping contracts — a sympathy vote propelled him to office when his wife was assassinated in a 2007 bomb and gun attack.
The controversial leader from Sindh, Zardari has spent over 11 years in jail, a long time even by the standards of Pakistani politicians, with a wheeler-dealer’s talent for bouncing back after scandals.
In 2009, the New York Times said he had a knack for “artful dodging”– “maneuvering himself out of the tight spots he gets himself into,”
Zardari was born in 1955 into a land-owning family from the southern province of Sindh.
“As a child, I was spoilt by my parents as their only son,” he said in a 2000 interview with the Guardian newspaper. “They indulged my every whim.”
His 1987 arranged marriage with PPP leader Benazir Bhutto earned him a spot in the political limelight.
Their union — brokered by Benazir’s mother — was considered an unlikely pairing for a leader-in-waiting from one of Pakistan’s major political dynasties.
Bhutto was an Oxford and Harvard graduate driven by the desire to oust then-president Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, who forced her father Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto from the PM’s office and later had him executed.
Zardari was a university dropout with a reputation for brawling, partying, and romancing women at a private disco in his family home.
On the eve of their wedding, Bhutto’s team issued a formal statement denying he was “a playboy who plays polo by day and frequents discos at night.”
Benazir served as the PM from 1988 to 1990 — the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim country — and again from 1993 to 1996. Her party insiders regarded Zardari as a liability, considering him likely to embarrass her leadership.
In 1990, he was embroiled in accusations of an absurd plot to extort a businessman by tying a bomb to his leg. He was jailed for three years on extortion and kidnapping charges but was elected to the National Assembly from behind bars.
In Benazir’s second stint as the PM, her husband served as investment minister.
An explosive New York Times probe found how he tried to engineer vast kickbacks on military contracts over this period while lavishing huge sums on jewelry. After his wife’s government fell in 1996, Zardari returned behind bars within half an hour.
In December 2007, Bhutto was assassinated while on the campaign trail for a third term in office. A sympathy wave carried the PPP to victory and Zardari became President.
In 2010, he was widely criticized for continuing a European holiday when the nation was devastated by floods that killed almost 1,800 and affected 21 million.
Zardari was the President when US Marine commandos trespassed onto Pakistani soil for the 2011 assassination of Osama Bin Laden, an episode that humiliated many compatriots.
He was jailed once again over money laundering charges in 2019 but was released months later.
Zardari and Benazir had three children, including Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the current chairman of the PPP.