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<\/div>\nAsif Ali Zardari is expected to take his oath on Sunday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Islamabad, Pakistan: <\/b><\/p>\n
Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Pakistan’s slain first female premier Benazir Bhutto who has had a life storied equally by tragedy and farce, was on Saturday voted president for a second time.<\/p>\n
Initially a background character as Bhutto’s consort, Mr Zardari was stained by a bevy of corruption and other allegations, including absurd kidnapping plots and taking kickbacks lavished on hoards of jewellery.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Between 2008 and 2013, he ushered in constitutional reforms rolling back presidential powers, and the 68-year-old’s second term will see him steer a largely ceremonial office.<\/p>\n
He has spent more than 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.<\/p>\n
Back 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”.<\/p>\n
Newly sworn-in national and provincial lawmakers and senators voted him in under the terms of a coalition deal brokered after February 8 elections marred by rigging claims.<\/p>\n
Under that deal, Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (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.<\/p>\n
Mr Zardari is expected to take his oath on Sunday.<\/p>\n
‘Polo playboy’<\/strong><\/h3>\nMr Zardari was born in 1955 into a land-owning family from the southern province of Sindh.<\/p>\n
“As a child, I was spoilt by my parents as an only son,” he said in a 2000 interview with The Guardian newspaper. “They indulged my every whim.”<\/p>\n
He expressed only limited political ambitions as a young man — losing a 1983 local government election.<\/p>\n
It was his 1987 arranged marriage with PPP leader Bhutto that earned him a spot in the political limelight.<\/p>\n
Their union — brokered by Bhutto’s mother — was considered an unlikely pairing for a leader-in-waiting from one of Pakistan’s major political dynasties.<\/p>\n
Bhutto was an Oxford and Harvard graduate driven by the desire to oust then-president Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, who forced her father from the prime minister’s office and had him executed.<\/p>\n
Mr Zardari was a university dropout with a reputation for brawling, partying and romancing women at a private disco in his family home.<\/p>\n
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”.<\/p>\n
Their nuptial celebrations were dubbed the “people’s wedding” — doubling as a political rally in the megacity of Karachi, where a crowd of 100,000 fervently chanted PPP slogans.<\/p>\n
Initially, Mr Zardari pledged to keep out of politics.<\/p>\n
On the make<\/strong><\/h3>\nBhutto served as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 — the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim country — and again from 1993 to 1996.<\/p>\n
PPP insiders regarded Mr Zardari as a liability, considering him likely to embarrass her leadership.<\/p>\n
Their fears were perhaps well-founded. In 1990, he was embroiled in accusations of an absurd plot to extort a businessman by tying a bomb to his leg.<\/p>\n
He was jailed for three years on extortion and kidnapping charges but was elected to the national assembly from behind bars.<\/p>\n
In Bhutto’s second term, he served as investment minister.<\/p>\n
A bombshell New York Times investigation detailed how he tried to engineer vast kickbacks on military contracts over this period while lavishing huge sums on jewellery.<\/p>\n
After Bhutto’s government fell in 1996, Mr Zardari was back behind bars within half an hour.<\/p>\n
Accidental president<\/strong><\/h3>\nIn December 2007, Bhutto was assassinated while on the campaign trail for a third term in office.<\/p>\n
Her killing shook the nation to its core, a wave of sympathy carrying the PPP to victory in 2008. The party nominated Mr Zardari as president.<\/p>\n
In 2010, he was widely criticised for continuing a European holiday when the nation was devastated by floods that killed almost 1,800 and affected 21 million.<\/p>\n
He was also head of state when US commandos trespassed onto Pakistani soil for the 2011 assassination of Osama Bin Laden, an episode that humiliated many compatriots.<\/p>\n
He did, however, usher in constitutional reforms rolling back the sweeping powers of the presidency and bolstering parliamentary democracy that had been undermined by three decades of military rule since 1947.<\/p>\n
In 2013, Mr Zardari became the first Pakistani president to complete his full term.<\/p>\n
He was jailed once again over money laundering charges in 2019 but was released months later.<\/p>\n
Mr Zardari and Benazir had three children, including Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the current chairman of the PPP.<\/p>\n
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Bhutto served as prime minister from 1988 to 1990 — the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim country — and again from 1993 to 1996.<\/p>\n
PPP insiders regarded Mr Zardari as a liability, considering him likely to embarrass her leadership.<\/p>\n
Their fears were perhaps well-founded. In 1990, he was embroiled in accusations of an absurd plot to extort a businessman by tying a bomb to his leg.<\/p>\n
He was jailed for three years on extortion and kidnapping charges but was elected to the national assembly from behind bars.<\/p>\n
In Bhutto’s second term, he served as investment minister.<\/p>\n
A bombshell New York Times investigation detailed how he tried to engineer vast kickbacks on military contracts over this period while lavishing huge sums on jewellery.<\/p>\n
After Bhutto’s government fell in 1996, Mr Zardari was back behind bars within half an hour.<\/p>\n