Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party
(PPP), has secured his second term as President of Pakistan, defeating Mahmood
Khan Achakzai, the candidate backed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and
Sunni Ittehad Council.
In the presidential election, Zardari garnered an
overwhelming majority, securing 411 votes, while Achakzai managed to bag 181 votes,
only one vote was rejected. To know more about the charismatic as well as
mysterious character of Zardari read the details published in Dawn newspaper on
February 23, 2024.
Even his rivals acknowledge that Zardari is a deal-maker par
excellence. He has been written off and made a comeback so many times that his
doubters have simply stopped trying.
You have heard the trope: Asif Ali Zardari is Machiavelli’s
Il Principe personified. While that most certainly isn’t an endearment, it is
perhaps not much of an insult either. Whether one accepts it or not, Zardari seems
to have cracked the code to surviving and succeeding in the swampy wastelands
of Pakistani politics. There are very few who can claim to have his guile, and
none who can claim his political acumen.
Call it the politics of ‘mufahimat’ (understanding and
reconciliation) or the politics of ‘mufadaat’ (interests and advantages), the
Zardari brand of deal-making has ensured that his star continues to
shine.
“Chaos isn’t a pit,” go the memorable lines from Game of
Thrones, one of the most popular TV show of our times. “Chaos is a ladder. Many
who try to climb it fail and never get to try again. The fall breaks them.”
“And some are given a chance to climb. They refuse, they
cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The
climb is all there is.”
In the chaos of Pakistan’s politics, none has climbed the
ladder higher or more successfully than Zardari. He has been thrown off again
and again, yet refused to let his falls break him.
He has seized every opportunity to play the game, and won it
with an unlikely hand too many times.
The young Zardari was a notorious playboy who often ended up
in brawls at Karachi’s casinos. He was known for his then-famous father, Hakim
Ali Zardari, who had been elected as an MNA on a PPP ticket to Zulfikar Ali
Bhutto’s first assembly.
The two were said to be close at one time, but fell out at
some stage, following which the elder Zardari had exited the PPP. At one time,
both father and son supported the anti-Bhutto alliance.
The Zardaris were otherwise regarded as a liberal Sindhi
family who ran a successful entertainment business centred around their two
cinemas. The son, at one point, had also tried his hand in the construction
business, but was not successful.
The family’s name shot to national prominence when, through
a common family connection, the Zardari scion’s marriage was arranged with
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s daughter and protégé, the late Benazir Bhutto. Benazir
was well-loved and internationally known: it was natural for the spotlight to
shine on her soon-to-be-husband. On the night of their wedding, the two
celebrated with thousands of well-wishers, most of them common folk, at Lyari’s
Kakri Ground.
The event seemed as political as it was personal, and it
catapulted Zardari onto the national stage.
The very next year, in 1988, Ms Bhutto was elected Pakistan’s
first woman prime minister. Zardari
landed in Prime Minister House, and quickly went to work turning around his
personal fortunes. It wasn’t long before Ms Bhutto’s first government was mired
in scandals of all shades and sizes. It was during this time that Zardari
earned the title of ‘Mr 10 percent’.
The axe would fall as soon as Ms Bhutto’s government was
dismissed. Among the numerous cases filed against Zardari was one involving
abduction for extortion. Zardari was accused of abducting a businessman,
strapping a bomb to him, and sending him to the bank to withdraw a large sum of
money from his account. The case ran in an anti-terrorism court between 1990
and 1993. Nothing ever came of it.
It was during Ms Bhutto’s next government that Zardari
finally started being regarded as one of the most powerful men in the country. He
got his own office within PM House, and was even made a federal minister. After
that government was also dismissed, he was arrested immediately. A slew of new
cases were filed against him, and Zardari once again found himself in jail. Once
again, he was never convicted.
Zardari’s by then lengthy record and the length of time he
had spent behind bars, without ever being convicted, added to his legend. He
quickly came to be regarded as a shrewd wheeler-dealer who could get out of the
stickiest situations without any fatal consequences.
It was Ms Bhutto’s tragic assassination that proved to be
another turning point in Zardari’s fortunes. Though he had deferred to his
spouse’s politics during her lifetime, the mantle of the PPP now fell to him.
His shrewd, calculating nature came to his aid, and benefit.
Having decided that General Musharraf needed to go, Zardari played a cunning
hand, using the army chief at the time to get Musharraf evicted from the
presidency. No one at the time realized that Zardari actually wanted the job
for himself.
The presidency solidified his grip on power. Although
he buried Article 58(2)(b) of the Constitution as president, the PPP government
continued to be run from the President House, with key decisions always in
Zardari’s hands.
Although that term led to speculation that the PPP would be
wiped out from nearly everywhere except Sindh, Zardari had prepared in advance
with the 18th Amendment. It allowed him to keep a foot in the corridors of
power while plotting his comeback for another time.
In recent years, with rival parties much larger than his own
engaged in a long-running death match, Zardari did not take his eyes off the
ladder.
After the 2024 elections, he has emerged as a kingmaker yet
again. He has also managed to secure the maximum concessions for his own party
(and himself), while giving very little to the PML-N in return.
Even
his fiercest rivals begrudgingly acknowledge that Zardari is a deal-maker par
excellence. He has been written off and made a comeback so many times that his
doubters have simply stopped trying.
They
say that “the only thing certain in life is death and taxes”; in Pakistan, it
might as well be “death, taxes, and Zardari’s political relevance”.
The man has been derided as a Machiavellian leader, a shrewd
and cunning politician interested only in self-enrichment. Yet, he is also the
first democratically elected president to serve out a five-year tenure, and
likely to become the only person to have held that office twice.
