The husband of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari, was elected president of Pakistan on Saturday March 9, the electoral commission announced. He thus returns to an essentially honorary function that he had already occupied between 2008 and 2013. He received 411 votes, against 181 in favor of the candidate supported by the opposition, during a vote by the electoral college, made up of members of both houses of Parliament and the four provincial assemblies.
His election as head of this Islamic republic was beyond doubt, because it was part of a pact sealed at the end of the legislative and provincial elections of February 8, marred by serious accusations of fraud. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which he leads with his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, has concluded a coalition agreement with its historic rival, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) of Shehbaz Sharif. As per the agreement, Shehbaz Sharif was elected prime minister on March 3, and the presidency was promised to 68-year-old Asif Ali Zardari.
Independent candidates supported by Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, imprisoned since August, emerged victorious from the elections, despite the authorities’ repression against them. The PTI denounced massive manipulations, at the initiative of the powerful army, and claimed an even broader victory. But his refusal of any alliance left the field open to his main rivals, whom he described as “mandate thieves”.
Accused of corruption and nicknamed “Mr. 10%”
Asif Ali Zardari was the husband of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, the first modern woman to lead a Muslim country, who was assassinated in 2007. After her death, he returned from exile to take the helm of the PPP. The party won the following legislative elections and he was elected president by Parliament in September 2008.
In 2010, he passed a constitutional amendment transferring part of the president’s powers to the lower house, therefore strengthening the prerogatives of the prime minister. This text had reestablished the classic parliamentary regime established by the 1973 Constitution, which prevailed before the military coups of generals Zia-ul-Haq in 1977 and Pervez Musharraf in 1999.
A skillful strategist, Asif Ali Zardari continued to lead the political game behind the scenes and managed to complete his mandate, the victory of the PML-N in the 2013 legislative elections then pushing him towards the exit. During this mandate, he had been criticized for his inertia in the face of the risk of economic bankruptcy of the country and subjected to numerous accusations of corruption dating back to the time when he was minister of Benazir Bhutto, in the 1990s. For many Pakistanis, especially young people, mostly favorable to Imran Khan, Asif Ali Zardari, known for a long time under the nickname “Mr. 10%” in reference to the commissions he was accused of collecting, embodies better than anyone the corruption of ruling classes.
He succeeds Arif Alvi, a close friend of Imran Khan, who was elected in 2018 after the PTI’s victory in the legislative elections. He has until the end sought to defend the interests of the PTI after Imran Khan was ousted from the post of prime minister by a motion of no confidence in April 2022, even going so far as to try to delay the start of the present legislature.
Even if his function is above all ceremonial, Asif Ali Zardari should exercise a strong influence, at a time when Pakistan, a giant of 240 million inhabitants equipped with nuclear weapons, is confronted with a multitude of crises, political, economic and safe. And all the more so since his party, which agreed to support the PML-N but apparently refused any ministerial post, is an essential partner of any coalition and therefore holds the future of Shehbaz Sharif’s government in its hands.
