A Baloch from a landowning tribe based in Sindh, Zardari rose to prominence after his marriage to Bhutto in 1987. Between 1993 and 1996, he held various cabinet positions in the second Bhutto administration.
He was arrested on charges of corruption in late 1996, following the collapse of the Bhutto government. 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. He subsequently went into self-exile in Dubai, but returned in December 2007 after Bhutto's assassination. As the Co-Chairman of the PPP, he led his party to victory in the 2008 general elections. He spearheaded a coalition that forced Musharraf to resign and was elected President on 6 September 2008.
As president, Zardari has been a consistently strong U.S. ally in the war in Afghanistan, despite prevalent public disapproval of the nation's involvement in the conflict. In late 2008, his government obtained a three-year multi-billion dollar loan package from the International Monetary Fund in an effort to steer the nation out of an economic crisis. In early 2009, his attempt to prevent the reinstatement of Supreme Court judges failed in the face of massive protests led by Nawaz Sharif, his chief political rival. The passage of the 18th Amendment in 2010 reduced his vast presidential powers to that of a ceremonial figurehead.
Early life and education
Zardari was born on 26 July 1955[3] in Karachi, Sindh[4][5] in the Zardari family. He is a Sindhi of Baloch origin, belonging to the Sindhi-Baloch Zardari tribe.[3] He is the only son of Hakim Ali Zardari, a tribal chief and prominent landowner, and Zarrin Zardari.[4][6]
In his youth, he enjoyed polo and boxing.[7] He led a polo team known as the Zardari Four.[8] His father owned Bambino[9]—a famous cinema in Karachi—and donated movie equipment to his school.[7] Zardari's academic background remains a question mark.[7] He received his primary education from Karachi Grammar School. His official biography says he graduated from Cadet College, Petaro in 1972.[3][7] He went to St Patrick's High School, Karachi from 1973–74; a school clerk says he failed his final examination there.[7] 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.[9] Zardari's official biography states he also attended Pedinton School in Britain.[7][9][10] His British education, however, has not been confirmed, and a search did not turn up any Pedinton School in London.[7][9][10] The issue of his diploma was contentious because a 2002 rule required candidates for Parliament to hold a college degree,[9] but the rule was overturned by Pakistan's Supreme Court in April 2008.[7][10]
Early political career
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.[7] He then went into real estate.[7]
Benazir Bhutto Era
Marriage to Bhutto
He married Benazir Bhutto on 18 December 1987.[11][12] The arranged marriage, done in accordance with Pakistani culture, was initially considered an unlikely match.[11][12] The lavish sunset ceremony in Karachi was followed by immense night celebrations that included over 100,000 people.[11][12] The marriage enhanced Bhutto's political position in a country where older unmarried women are frowned upon.[11][12] Zardari deferred to his wife's wishes by agreeing to stay out of politics.[12]
In 1988, General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq died in a plane crash. 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
See also: Corruption charges against Benazir Bhutto
He generally stayed out of his wife's first administration, but he and his associates became entangled in corruption cases linked to the government.[13] He was largely blamed for the collapse of the Bhutto administration.[14]
After the dismissal of Bhutto's government in August 1990,[15] Benazir Bhutto and Zardari were prohibited from leaving the country by security forces under the direction of the Pakistan Army.[16] 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.[17] 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.[17] He was tagged with the nickname "Mr. Ten Percent".[7]
He was arrested on 10 October 1990 on charges relating to kidnapping and extortion.[15][18] The charges alleged an extortion scheme that involved tying a supposed bomb to a British businessman's leg.[7] The Bhutto family considered the indictment politically motivated and fabricated.[18] In the October 1990 elections, he was elected to the National Assembly while in jail.[19] Bhutto and the PPP staged a walkout from the inaugural session of the National Assembly to protest Zardari's incarceration.[19] 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.[14] The ordinance was later revoked and a special court acquitted him of bank fraud and conspiracy to murder political opponents.[14] He was freed in February 1993.[14] In March 1994, Zardari was acquitted of bank fraud charges.[20] All other corruption charges relating to Bhutto's first term were dropped or thrown out of the courts.[21]
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.[22] The caretaker government lasted until the July elections.[22] After Bhutto's election, he served as her Investment Minister,[21][23] chief of the intelligence bureau,[21] and the head of the Federal Investigation Agency.[21] 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.[24] In April 1994, Zardari denied allegations that he was wielding unregulated influence as a spouse and acting as "de-facto Prime Minister".[25][26] In March 1995, he was appointed chairman of the new Environment Protection Council.[27][28]
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.[29] Benazir thanked Zardari for his support.[29] 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.[30][31] At Murtaza's funeral, Nusrat accused Benazir and Zardari of being responsible and vowed to pursue prosecution.[21][30] Ghinwa Bhutto, Murtaza's widow, also accused Zardari of being behind his killing.[21][32] President Farooq Leghari, who would dismiss the Bhutto government seven weeks after Murtaza's death, also suspected Benazir and Zardari's involvement.[21] 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.[21]
In November 1996, Bhutto's government was dismissed by Leghari primarily because of corruption and Murtaza's death.[21] Zardari was arrested in Lahore while attempting to flee the country to Dubai.[21][31]
Jail and exile
Co-Chairman of the PPP
Bhutto's assassination and successionMain article: Assassination of Benazir Bhutto
Zardari prevented Bhutto's autopsy in accordance with Islamic principles.[70][71] He and their children attended her funeral, which was held the next day.[72] He rebuffed government allegations that the assassination was sponsored by Al-Qaida.[70][73] He called for an international inquiry into her death and stated that she would still be alive if Musharraf's government had provided adequate protection.[71][74][75] He and his family offered to accept Musharraf's demand to exhume Bhutto's body in exchange for a United Nations inquiry, but Musharraf rejected the proposal.[76]
In Bhutto's political will, she had designated Zardari her successor as party leader.[70][73][77] However, their nineteen-year-old son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, became Chairman of the PPP because Zardari favoured Bilawal to represent Bhutto's legacy, in part to avoid division within the party due to his own unpopularity.[70][73][78] He did, however, serve as Co-Chairman of the PPP for at least three years until Bilawal completed his studies overseas.[70][77][78]
February parliamentary elections and coalition formation
Main article: Pakistani general election, 2008
Zardari called for no delays to the 8 January parliamentary elections and for the participation of all opposition parties.[70] Other major political parties quickly agreed to participate, ending any chance of a boycott.[70][71] Because of the turmoil after the Bhutto assassination, the elections were postponed six weeks to 18 February.[71][79] In January 2008, he suggested that if his party did win a majority, it might form a coalition with Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q).[79][80] He and Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (N) party (PML-N), threatened national protests if any vote-rigging was attempted.[80][81] He himself could not run for Parliament because he had not filed election papers in November 2008, back when he had no foreseeable political ambition while Bhutto was alive.[82]
The PPP and the PML-N won the largest and second largest number of seats respectively in the February elections.[82][83] He and Sharif agreed to form a coalition government, ending American hopes of a power-sharing deal between him and Musharraf.[82][83] They agreed to restore the judiciary, but Zardari took a less stringent stance than Sharif.[83][84] He met with U.S. ambassador Anne W. Patterson, who pushed for a pact with Musharraf.[83] To strengthen the new coalition, he reached out to Awami National Party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, and Baloch nationalist leaders, who had all boycotted the elections.[85][86]
After weeks of speculation and party infighting, he said he did not want to become Prime Minister.[86][87][88] In mid-March 2008, he chose Yousaf Raza Gillani for Prime Minister in a snub to the more politically powerful Makhdoom Amin Fahim.[88]
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