Adios, President Asif Ali Zardari

BY Dr Mohammad Taqi

The former president has conducted himself with his hallmark personal courage and the political finesse of a seasoned politician, never coming across as an accidental leader With Mr Asif Ali Zardari passing on the presidential baton to Mr Mamnoon Hussain, Pakistan completed the first full democratic transition in its history. Mr Zardari presided over the country and his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in perhaps the most turbulent times in the history of both since 1971. Seen at his martyred wife Benazir Bhutto’s side since her first term as the prime minister, Mr Zardari was never a stranger to politics or controversy but his decision to run for the president after successfully ousting the military ruler General Pervez Musharraf in 2008, still surprised many. But with remarkable political suave Mr Zardari managed to be elected the president of Pakistan — unanimously. For a party that had lost its past two governments at the hands of two presidents within a five-year span, securing the then all-powerful presidential office was an absolute imperative. Conventional Pakistani political wisdom would have been for Mr Zardari to get a personal and party confidant elected as the president and rule from behind the scenes. He could also have opted to take a twirl at the prime ministerial slot — the chief executive but defanged position at the time. But Mr Zardari decided to take the office himself. With hindsight it looks like the best political decision of his career. He not only got to cover the PPP’s flank but also set the stage for eventually divesting the authority to dissolve the National Assembly that had been the bane of Pakistan’s parliamentary democracy throughout the 1990s. Military rulers like General Pervez Musharraf had described the president’s power to send governments packing as a safety valve against an army takeover. But the notorious Article 58(2)(b) effectively was the junta’s trapdoor that democracy kept falling through. Without securing the presidential office, Mr Zardari, the PPP, its coalition partners and the whole democratic dispensation would have effectively remained hostage to yet another political turncoat or bureaucrat doing the junta’s bidding. Mr Zardari’s slick manoeuvre and then safekeeping of the power to fire governments paved the way for the major constitutional changes including the 18th amendment that in sum total have done away with the quasi-presidential system that the 1973 constitution had mutated into. Full restoration of the 1973 constitution to its original form and spirit is still incomplete and would need removal of clauses such as the abhorrent and persecutory anti-Ahmadi amendment and addressing the status of the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas. Mr Zardari could certainly have done more on this front. But perhaps that is one area where his political outlook differed from the late Benazir Bhutto’s. Before and after her ill-fated return to Pakistan in 2007, Ms Benazir Bhutto was perceived as closer to her party’s social democratic ideological origins than she had been previously. We would never know if some of her very enlightened views would have translated into action had she lived to lead the country. But Mr Zardari clearly parted with Ms Bhutto’s rediscovered idealism and anchored his stint firmly in political pragmatism. He has remained one of the most vocal opponents of extremism and jihadist militancy but was never oblivious to the realpolitik needed in the rough and tumble of the Pakistani polity. He picked his battles carefully and shied away neither from a robust charge nor tactical recoil when the situation demanded. That the former president Asif Zardari did not want a head-on confrontation with the permanent power structures became clear from his initial handling of Ms Bhutto’s heartrending murder. He insisted that his party stick to the ‘democracy is the best revenge’ slogan, given originally by Ms Bhutto herself, rather than get into an agitation mode. With one eye on the 2008 elections and the other on keeping an emotionally devastated party intact, Mr Zardari apparently chose not to seek political mileage from the gruesome assassination. He might have had at the back of his mind Ms Bhutto’s own handling of the late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s judicial murder and agreeing to hold her nose and work with the vestiges of the martial law regime. But there certainly are differences between the two most tragic murders. The ZAB murder case was much more transparent and there was an element of closure with General Ziaul Haq and his judicial quislings being the known perpetrators. Additionally, Ms Bhutto and Mrs Nusrat Bhutto had led a decade-long struggle against the junta. On the other hand, Ms. Bhutto’s murder case remains unresolved despite her own party remaining at the helm for five years. Little if any interest or progress was shown by the PPP under Mr Zardari to pursue Ms. Bhutto’s murder case. From declining an autopsy on day one to not formally becoming a party in the legal proceedings till after the PPP left the government, there are questions about the handling of Ms Bhutto’s murder case that could have been addressed in a timely manner. Mr Asif Zardari maintained a rather ad hoc approach to national security and foreign policies with the PPP under him practically abdicating both to the security establishment. A direct consequence of this hands-off approach was an inability to do anything about the death that rained in Balochistan and the wholesale slaughter of the Shia and other religious minorities in the past five years. Thousands of devastated families that lost their loved ones may not, however, be able to empathise with the niceties of realpolitik needed to buttress a nascent democracy. The PPP and Mr Zardari owe them an explanation, consolation, and, at the very least, a promise of doing better if given a chance again. The former president has conducted himself with his hallmark personal courage and the political finesse of a seasoned politician, never coming across as an accidental leader. He has his work cut out for him again. He doesn’t have the luxury to write a book or develop presidential libraries. His party desperately needs reorganisation and reorientation. The PPP traditionally holds its own while in opposition but now there are new competitive kids on the block. Mr Zardari and the PPP should rightly cherish their many constitutional achievements but they must reflect long and hard about their tremendous governance debacles that ultimately cost them an election. Mr Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and possibly his sister Aseefa may become the ideological face and soul of the PPP very soon but Mr Zardari remains indispensable as its political muscle and game maker in the foreseeable future. An eventual run for the prime minister might not be too farfetched.

Adios for now President Asif Ali Zardari, we’ll see you soon!