PRESIDENT ASIF ALI ZARDARI
Political Victimization
While Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was still in government, Asif Ali Zardari was often targeted by the opposition’s vicious campaigns to discredit and malign him. He was tortured and jailed without conviction, all in an attempt to keep his wife from her duties as a democratically elected leader.
Many weaker men would have buckled under the pressures. However, Asif Ali Zardari stood by Shaheed Mohtarma through every trial. And he survived the pain and anguish with a smile on his face.
A few years later, when Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto was the opposition leader, Asif Ali Zardari was tortured extensively, which was then hidden up as a suicide attempt when the intent was to murder him. His tongue was cut in another such attempt, but no evidence ever came up against him. They wanted to eliminate the Bhutto family, and as a first step, they went after the spouse of the opposition leader, Mohtarma Bhutto, to weaken her politically and emotionally.
He spent 11 years in Pakistani prisons fighting charges of corruption, again without any convictions on his name. The repeated mental and physical torture, as well as the solitary confinement, left him with a spinal ailment which prevents him from moving around too much to this day. The lack of proper treatment led to further nerve compression. His eyes also suffered due to the long nights when he was made to stand under blazing lights and denied sleep.
The setbacks were not only limited to health issues. Asif Ali Zardari also suffered severe personal traumas because he was unlawfully jailed and kept away from his young children, who needed their father the most. And yet he persevered, only to have his wife, the mother of his children murdered brutally.
And perhaps this is why Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto considered him to be the best person to lead the Party and the nation. She said that “Asif Ali Zardari is the Nelson Mandela of Pakistan.” His stoic suffering made him the natural successor of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto. He was the right person to lead the party at that tragic time after Shaheed Mohtarma’s assassination.
Bringing Unity
His leadership united the Party again and gave Pakistan hope for the future. It was his bravery, patience, and persistence that made him the best possible candidate to lead Pakistan Peoples Party in elections against the dictator Parvez Musharraf. In 2008, Asif Ali Zardari was sworn in as the 11th President of Pakistan.
Presidential Achievements
Asif Ali Zardari’s visionary leadership helped PPP win the election. As the Co-Chairman of the Party and President of Pakistan, he steered a democratic government towards completing its full five-year term, a first in Pakistan’s history.
President Asif Ali Zardari introduced the politics of reconciliation in Pakistan. He brought the country out of the dark era of Musharraf’s tyrannical rule. He continued the policies of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto and released all political prisoners imprisoned during the Musharraf era. No politically motivated cases were registered against the leaders of any political party.
The Party led the call for the passage of the 18th Amendment — a historic amendment to the Constitution which reduced presidential powers and increased provincial autonomy. These powers had been historically used to overthrow democratically elected governments. President Zardari chose to reduce the power of his position for the greater good of the country, strengthening the parliament as a result.
Also, the Party got a consensus on the seventh NFC award which was meant to increase the provinces’ financial autonomy and remove constraints that had traditionally restricted the provinces to work for the betterment of their people.
The PPP-led government also unveiled the Aghaz-i-Huqooq-i-Balochistan package aimed at improving the situation in the province. It included policies regarding electricity generation projects; giving priority over natural gas to the Baloch; giving control of broadcasting and telecasting infrastructure to the provincial government; starting a political dialogue with Baloch stakeholders; facilitating the return of exiled leaders; reviewing the role of federal agencies in Balochistan and the role of the Frontier Corps in law enforcement under the chief minister’s command; withdrawing the Coast Guards’ power to exercise delimitation of borders under the Customs Acts and limiting them to performance of their primary duties only; and giving the provincial government control of check posts in non-border areas.
The Huqooq-i-Balochistan initiative was lauded for generating great results initially. But the project failed to produce the intended results because the subsequent government did not continue its policies.
Vowing to eradicate polio from the country, President Asif Ali Zardari also launched Pakistan’s National Emergency Action Plan 2011 for Polio Eradication by administering polio drops to orphaned children from all the provinces.
The historic Benazir Income Support Programme was also President Asif Ali Zardari’s brainchild. It went on to become the first social safety net and praised internationally as a practical, transparent and a model package for the region.
Then in 2013, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and the President Asif Ali Zardari agreed to build an economic corridor between the two countries. This was the birth of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). This historic agreement further enhanced the mutual connectivity between the two countries and led to the creation of a long-term plan that would give birth to thousands of new employment opportunities to Pakistanis.
President Asif Ali Zardari kept Pakistan together. The whole country was ablaze with fires of terrorism, extremism and economic distress and it was only President Zardari who prioritized the interest of the country, despite the very personal setbacks he had suffered.
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