Asif Zardari - Pakistan's reluctant President

Asif Zardari romped home as the 12th President of Pakistan with a massive majority winning 281 of the 436 votes polled. The widower of the former Pakistan People’s Party leader and two-time prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, trounced Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) candidate Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddique (111 votes) and PML (Q) candidate M.H. Sayeed (34 votes) to replace Pervez Musharraf as the President of Pakistan.

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Instrumental in cobbling a coalition with Nawaz Sharif to bring down president Musharraf, Asif Zardari found himself in a dilemma after Musharraf was eased out of the president’s office. He openly stated that he would not like to run for presidency and that he would be happy to be just the PPP chief keeping the seat warm for his son Bilawal till he is ready to take over from him.

When Nawaz Sharif tried to drum up support for impeaching Pervez Musharraf, Zardari seemed to have developed cold feet at the peak of the campaign. His reluctance probably stemmed from the fact that if he was party to an unpleasant exit of the former general and president, the amnesty granted to him by Musharraf may be affected.

Again when Nawaz Sharif pushed for reinstatement of judges including the former chief justice sacked by Musharraf, Zardari was seen dragging his feet. One wonders—why? Zardari fears that if the judges are reinstated at the instance of Nawaz Sharif, they may reopen the cases of Asif Zardari. That could cause a lot of discomfort and turmoil to Zardari both at personal as well as political levels.

That must have created some insecurity in Asif Zardari. Zardari saw these actions of Nawaz Sharif as efforts to weaken his position. Probably that is what motivated Zardari to run for presidency. That could be the reason why it was opposed by Nawaz Sharif because he could clearly read the shift in equation following Zardari’s decision to contest the presidential elections.

For Zardari, this win was a foregone conclusion from the word go. The result of the presidential poll must be creating a lot of insecurity in Nawaz Sharif’s camp. With so many serious cases pending against him he may be targeted anytime.

Asif Zardari might have stepped into the president’s shoes but already he must be finding it too big for him because the previous owner of these shoes was none other than General Pervez Musharraf. For one thing, Musharraf had complete backing of the army except maybe for the last few months. And, then, he was one of the shrewdest politicians Pakistan has ever produced.

As far as Asif Zardari is concerned, he has to learn high level politics from scratch and he may not enjoy the same level of support from the army. So, it should not surprise anyone if he drags his feet on important issues. After all, he is a reluctant president!