Asif Ali Zardari
Asif Ali Zardari has been President of Pakistan since March 2024, having previously held the office from 2008 to 2013 — the first person to be elected to it twice. Born in Karachi in 1955 into a Sindhi landowning family, he married Benazir Bhutto in an arranged match in 1987, a year before she became prime minister. His reputation was made during her two terms, when he held ministerial posts and acquired the nickname Mr Ten Per Cent from allegations of taking commissions on government contracts. He spent roughly eleven years in prison across two spells, from 1990 to 1993 and 1996 to 2004, on corruption and murder charges — including the killing of Benazir's brother Murtaza — and was never convicted of any of them. He has consistently said the cases were political. Benazir Bhutto was assassinated in Rawalpindi in December 2007. Zardari took over the Pakistan Peoples Party as co-chairman with their son Bilawal, won the 2008 elections, and became president after Pervez Musharraf resigned. His first term is remembered for two things. He signed the Eighteenth Amendment in 2010, which stripped the presidency of the power to dissolve parliament and devolved substantial authority to the provinces, deliberately reducing his own office. And he completed a full five-year term, after which power transferred to an elected successor — the first time in Pakistan's history that had happened. He returned to the presidency in 2024 after a disputed election in which candidates backed by the imprisoned Imran Khan won the most seats but were denied a party symbol, and the PPP backed a coalition under Shehbaz Sharif.
- Lived: 1955 CE – ?
- Nationality: Pakistani
- Roles: President of Pakistan (2008-2013), President of Pakistan (2024-present)
