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After the death of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, Asif
Ali Zardari became the Co-Chairman
of the Pakistan People's Party in January 2008,
and was then elected as the President of the
Islamic Republic of Pakistan later on during the
year.
President
Asif Ali Zardari is the son of veteran politician
Mr. Hakim Ali Zardari. On his maternal side he is
the great-grandson of Khan Bahadur Hassan Ali
Effendi, the founder of the first educational
institution for Muslims in Sindh. The founder of
Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah was
amongst the prominent
students to graduate from the Sindh Madrasa.
Mr. Zardari received his
primary education at the Karachi Grammar School
before he joined Cadet
College Petaro. He pursued his further education
in London where he studied Business.
After 20 years of marriage, Mr. Zardari
was widowed on December 27, 2007 when Shaheed
Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in a
terrorist attack at
Liaquat Bagh in
Rawalpindi. Ms Bhutto was PPP Chairperson from
1979 until her assassination and was twice elected
Prime Minister of Pakistan.
Mr. Zardari served as a
Member of the National Assembly twice (1990-93 and
1993-96), as Federal Minister for the Environment
(1993-1996) and as Federal Minister for Investment
(1995-96). He was the principal architect of the
Benazir Bhutto government's efforts to transform
Pakistan's energy power sector by encouraging
major investment opportunities in power
generation. He was also the initiator of the
Iran-Pakistan natural gas pipeline project.
Mr. Zardari was elected
Senator in 1997 and served in that capacity until
the dissolution of the Senate following the
military coup of 1999.
Mr. Zardari's
political career spans two decades spent working
closely with Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. During this
period he helped formulate policies that expanded
the freedom of the media, revolutionized
telecommunications and opened Pakistan for foreign
direct investment. During Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir
Bhutto's first term in office CNN and BBC were
allowed broadcasting rights in Pakistan and mobile
telephone services introduced at Mr Zardari's
initiative. During her second term in office, in
addition to the independent power producers (IPPs)
being allowed in, Mr Zardari encouraged the
introduction of FM radio in the private sector.
Mr Zardari was targeted by anti-democratic forces
for vilification and persecution and bore the
hardship with fortitude. He spent eleven and a
half years in prison in conditions often
unacceptable by human rights standards, without
any charge ever being proven against him. He won
election as MNA and as senator while in prison.
Despite many offers from the government of the
time to leave Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) or to
go abroad under a negotiated political exit, he
remained committed to Party goals and continued
his fight for justice and the return of a
democratically elected civilian leadership.
Mr. Zardari was asked by the Central Executive
Committee (CEC) of the Pakistan Peoples Party to
serve as Chairman of the Party after the
assassination of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.
Although he was elected unopposed, he nominated
his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for that role and
instead accepted the job of Co-Chairman of the
PPP. After Ms. Bhutto's death he has remained in
the frontlines of shaping a national consensus at
the federal level on the politics of
reconciliation initiated by Shaheed Mohtarma
Benazir Bhutto.
Under Mr. Zardari's leadership of the Party, the
PPP's candidate for Prime Minister Syed Yousaf
Raza Gillani was elected Prime Minister of
Pakistan unopposed. This was a singular and
unprecedented event in Pakistan's political
history.
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