Asif Ali Zardari has been elected as president of Pakistan for a second term. He had once said, “I either live in jail or the Prime Minister's House.” As the spouse of two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, he spent several years in the Prime Minister's House. Zardari completed his first term as president in 2013. He had earlier spent more than 11 years in jail. He is the only person in Pakistan to have been elected to the highest office for a second term.

President Zardari’s political life has been a roller coaster ride. He has had an unending series of cases brought against him and had been in jail for years without a conviction. He has also been a victim of ‘media trial.’ His opponents in the 1990s used to call him Mr 10 Percent. Despite ‘deals’ with powerful quarters available to him between 1990 and 2004, he faced incarceration for long intervals. Impressed by his steadfast resilience, Majeed Nizami, the publisher-editor in chief of Daily Nawai Waqt, once a fierce critic, came round to describing him as ‘Mard i Hur’ (a free man).

In 1999, he was brutally tortured in custody during an interrogation in the presence of the then Inspector General of Sindh Police Rana Maqbool. (Maqbool, who became a PML-N senator in 2018, passed away last year.) In the late 1990s, chief of Ehtisab (acountability) Cell, Saif-ur Rehman, filed several references against Zardari. However, in 2003, Rehman apologised to Zardari in Rawalpindi NAB courts in the presence of several journalists. Zardari did not seek revenge against Saif. His willingness to work with political opponents has earned him the Master of Reconciliation moniker.

During his first term as president, he faced the Memogate Scandal. The allegations were later dismissed by the courts.

This scribe first met Zardari for an interview in Kot Lakhpat Jail in February 1999. Asked about the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif enjoying near absolute power after ousting President Farooq Leghari and Justice Sajjad Ali Shah and having appointed Gen Pervez Musharraf as the new army chief following Gen Jahangir Karamat’s resignation, he said, “The year 1999 will be the last year of Nawaz’s rule. Musharraf will remove him.” The interview was published in The Nation. Subsequently, Gen Musharraf ousted Nawaz Sharif in a coup on October 12, 1999.

This scribe kept visiting him in jails and courts till his release and has been a witness to his growing political maturity and acumen. His eagerness for reconciliation transformed some of his former foes into allies. Today, the PML-N and the PPP are major players in the power corridors but no longer as hostile towards each other as in the 1980s and 1990s.

Zardari has faced 23 cases, allegedly registered with political motives. He has been acquitted in all those. In 2008, he became the most powerful elected official in Pakistan, when as president he had the power to dissolve the assemblies, appoint the services chiefs, chief justices of the Supreme Court and high courts, and other discretions. However, he surrendered these powers to the parliament.

To strengthen democracy and give greater autonomy to the provinces, he facilitated the legislation of the 18^th Amendment with the support of PML-N and other political parties.

President Zardari’s political career has been a roller coaster ride. He has had an unending series of cases filed against him without having been convicted in any.

Under his command, the PPP government reached the 7^th National Finance Commission Award which resolved the long-standing issue of distribution of federal funds with the provinces based largely on population. According to Article 160 of the constitution, the president constitutes the NFC for five years after a consensus among the stakeholders on a particular formula to distribute the finances. Currently, the federal government receives 42.5 percent of the state revenue. The remaining 57.5 percent goes to the provinces.

The 7th Award raised the share of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan by making provisions for underdevelopment and special needs. Public investment encourages private investment. These provinces had long suffered poor private investment resulting in a sense of isolation and alienation among the people of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

The 7^th NFC Award introduced new indicators. Currently the indicators are: population (82 percent), poverty and backwardness (10.3 percent), revenue collection and generation (5 percent) and inverse population density (2.7 percent). The Punjab, then ruled by the PML-N, agreed to forgo a significant chunk of its share based on the previous formula.

The PPP government under President Zardari also announced a Balochistan Package to address the province’s political, social and economic problems. However, the PPP government could not manage the package for several reasons, including growing terrorism, the tussle between the elected government and the then chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, and the then Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani’s wish to announce his own package for Balochistan.

In 2008, the PPP government changed North Western Frontier Province’s name to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This had been a popular demand for long.

In 2009, President Zardari received credit for making the Federally Administered Northern Areas an autonomous administrative unit (Gilgit-Baltistan) with its own assembly and administrative structure.

After the 2013 elections, when Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf staged the longest dharna (sit-in) in front of the parliament house in Islamabad, President Zardari led his Pakistan Peoples Party in its support for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his PML-N government. Though Nawaz Sharif still could not complete his tenure, the National Assembly did.

Zardari is once again in the Presidency. His party has governments in Balochistan and Sindh. It will not be far fetched to say that he must have plans to strengthen democracy, empower the parliament and provide relief in Balochistan.

The writer is a senior journalist, teacher of journalism, writer and analyst. His X handle: @BukhariMubasher