Asif Ali Zardari born on 26 July 1955 is the most corrupt person of Pakistan but unfortunately he is simultaneously 11th and current President of Pakistan and the Co-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP).
Zardari is the widower of Benazir Bhutto, who served two nonconsecutive terms as Prime Minister. When his wife was assassinated in December 2007, he became the leader of the PPP. He successfully led the PPP through general elections in 2008 and led a coalition that forced Pervez Musharraf's resignation.[5]
His political career has been mired by corruption allegations, for which he was in prison from 1990–1993 and 1996-2004. He became widely known as "Mr. 10 Percent" during the premiership of Benazir Bhutto because of his alleged role in obtaining kickbacks as an intermediary in government deals.
As President, his attempt to prevent the reinstatement of judges failed after massive protests led by Nawaz Sharif, his chief political rival. He suffered further political embarrassment for flirting with candidate for US vice president slot Sarah Palin and for going to Europe during the 2010 Pakistan floods.
Zardari's academic background remains a question. He received his primary education from Karachi Grammar School. His official biography says he graduated from Cadet College, Petaro in 1972. He went to St Patrick's High School, Karachi from 1973-74; a school clerk says he failed his final examination there.
In March 2008, a PPP spokesman said Zardari had graduated from the London School of Economics and Business Studies. Zardari's official biography says he attended Pedinton School in Britain.
His schools in Britain couldn't be located. The issue about the authenticity of his diploma is contentious because of a 2002 rule which requires candidates for parliament to hold a college degree, but the rule was overturned by Pakistan's Supreme Court in April 2008.
Zardari's initial political career was unsuccessful. In 1983, he lost an election for a district council seat in Nawabshah, a city north of Karachi where his family owned thousands of acres of farmland. He then went into real estate business and earned bad name for wide scale and high level forgeries and frauds in real estate business.
He generally stayed out of his wife's first administration during 1988 to 1990, but he and his associates became tangled in corruption cases linked to the government. He was largely blamed for the collapse of the Bhutto administration.
After the dismissal of Bhutto's government in August 1990, Benazir Bhutto and Zardari were prohibited from leaving the country by security forces, under the direction of the Pakistan Army. During the interim government between August and October, caretaker Prime Minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi, a Bhutto rival, began investigations of corruption of the Bhutto administration. Jatoi accused Zardari with using his wife's political position to further his business deals by charging a 10 per cent commission to get permission for setting up any project or to receive loans. He was tagged with the nickname Mr. Ten Percent.
He was arrested on 10 October 1990 for charges relating to kidnapping and extortion. The charges alleged an extortion scheme that involved tying a supposed bomb to a British businessman's leg.
In the October 1990 elections, he was elected to the National Assembly while in jail. Bhutto and the PPP staged a walkout from the inaugural session of National Assembly in protest of Zardari's incarceration.
He posted $20,000 bail but his release was blocked by a government ordinance that removed a court's power to release suspects in terrorist court. The ordinance was later revoked and a special court acquitted him of bank fraud and conspiracy to murder political opponents.
He was freed in February 1993. In March 1994, Zardari was acquitted of bank fraud charges. All other corruption charges relating to Bhutto's first term were dropped or thrown out of the courts on account of political pressure by the largest political party of Pakistan i.e Pakistan Peoples Party.
In April 1993, he became one of the 18 cabinet ministers in the caretaker government that succeeded Nawaz Sharif's first abridged premiership. The caretaker government lasted until the July elections. After Bhutto's election, he served as Bhutto's Investment Minister, chief of the intelligence bureau, and the head of the Federal Investigation Agency.
In April 1994, Zardari refuted allegations that he was wielding unregulated influence as a spouse and acting as "de-facto Prime Minister". In March 1995, he was appointed chairman of the new Environment Protection Council.
During the beginning of the second Bhutto Administration, a Bhutto family feud between Benazir and her mother, Nusrat Bhutto, unraveled over the political future of Murtaza Bhutto.
Benazir thanked Zardari for his support. In September 1996, Murtaza and seven others died in a shootout with police in Karachi, while the city was undergoing a three-year civil war.
At Murtaza's funeral, Nusrat accused Benazir and Zardari of being responsible and vowed to pursue prosecution. Ghinwa Bhutto, Murtaza's widow, also accused Zardari of being behind his killing.
President Farooq Leghari, who would dismiss the Bhutto government seven weeks after Murtaza's death, also suspected Benazir's and Zardari's involvement. Several of Pakistan's leading newspapers alleged that Zardari wanted Murtaza out of the way because of Murtaza's activities as head of a breakaway faction of the PPP.
In November 1996, Bhutto's government was dismissed by Leghari primarily because of corruption and Murtaza's death. Zardari was arrested in Lahore while attempting to flee the country to Dubai.
A major report in January 1998 was published by The New York Times detailing Zardari's vast corruption and misuse of public funds. The report discussed Zardari's $200 million kickbacks for a $4 billion contract with French military contractor–Dassault Aviation– in a deal that fell apart only when the Bhutto government was dismissed.
It contained details on a single payment of a $10 million kickback from a gold bullion dealer in return for a monopoly on gold imports. It had information from Pakistani investigators that the Bhutto family had allegedly accrued more than $1.5 billion in illicit profits through kickbacks in virtually every sphere of government activity.
It also discussed Zardari's mid-1990s spending spree that involved millions of dollars for jewelry.
The arrangements made by the Bhutto family for their wealth relied on Western property companies, Western lawyers, and a network of Western friends. The report described how Zardari had arranged secret contracts, painstaking negotiations, and removal of resistant intermediaries.
As a result of the reports, Citibank ran into further private-banking trouble in Pakistan. Zardari's financial history was one case study in a 1999 US Senate report on various vulnerabilities in banking procedures.
In March 1997, he was elected to the Senate while in a Karachi jail. In July 1998, he was indicted for corruption in Pakistan after the Swiss government has handed over documents to Pakistani authorities relating to money laundering.
The Swiss government had also indicted him for money laundering. At the same time in a separate case, he and 18 others were also indicted for conspiracy to murder Murtaza Bhutto. After criminal prosecutions began, Citibank closed Zardari's account.
In April 1999, Bhutto and Zardari were convicted for receiving indemnities from a Swiss goods inspection company that was hired to end corruption in collection of customs duties. The couple received $8.6 million fines. Both were also sentenced five years imprisonment but Bhutto could not be extradited back to Pakistan from her self-imposed exile.
He was already jailed awaiting trial on separate charges. The evidence used against them was gathered by Swiss investigators and the Pakistani Bureau of Accountability.
In May 1999, he was hospitalized after an alleged attempted suicide. He claimed he suffered an attempted murder by police.
In August 2003, a Swiss judge charged Bhutto and Zardari for money laundering and sentenced them 6-month imprisonments and fined $50,000. In addition, they were required to return $11 million to the Pakistani government.
The conviction involved charges relating to kickbacks from two Swiss firms in exchange for customs fraud. In France, Poland, and Switzerland the couple faced allegations relating to corruption.
In November 2004, he was released on bail by court order. However, a month later he was again unexpectedly arrested for failing to show up for a hearing on a murder case in Islamabad. He was moved to house arrest in Karachi. A day later, he was released on $5,000 bail. His release, re-arrest, and then release again was regarded as a sign of growing reconciliation between Musharraf's government and the PPP. After his second release in late 2004, he left for exile overseas in Dubai.
He left to see Bhutto in Dubai and returned to Lahore in April 2005 In September 2005, he did not show up for a Rawalpindi hearing on corruption charges and the court issued an arrest warrant. His lawyers stated he could not come because he was recovering from treatment.
Following a request by the Rawalpindi court, Interpol issued a red notice in January 2006 against the couple which called on member nations to decide on the couple's extradition.
In November 2007, the dictator President of Pakistan General Prevez Musharraf installed emergency rule for six weeks, under the pretense of rising Islamist militancy, a few days following Bhutto's departure for Dubai to meet with Zardari.
Immediately after the state of emergency, Bhutto returned to Pakistan while Zardari again stayed behind in Dubai. The emergency rule was initiated right before the Supreme Court of Pakistan began to start deliberations on the legality of Musharraf's US-backed proposal — National Reconciliation Ordinance — to drop corruption charges against Bhutto and Zardari in return for a joint Bhutto-Musharraf coalition to lead Pakistan.
Bhutto and Zardari sympathized with Musharraf on his feud with the Supreme Court, but simultaneously criticized the imposition of martial law. Before the Supreme Court could issue a decision on the dismissal of corruption charges against Bhutto and Zardari, Musharraf replaced its members with his supporters.
In the midst of his exile, Zardari faced several different legal problems. In Pakistan, Musharraf gave amnesty to Zardari's alleged offenses through the National Reconciliation Ordinance drafted in October 2007.
However, the ordinance was up against mounting public pressure and an uncompromising judiciary. In addition the ordinance only dealt with charges up to 1999. This left open the possibility of investigations into alleged involvement of about $2 million in illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein under the oil-for-food program discovered in October 2005.
If the ordinance was rescinded, he would have had to deal with charges relating to evading duties on an armored BMW, commissions from a Polish tractor manufacturer, and a kickback from a gold bullion dealer. In Switzerland, Bhutto and Zardari appealed the 2003 Swiss conviction which required the case to be reopened in October 2007.
In November 2007, Swiss authorities returned the frozen $60 million to him through offshore companies because of the NRO. In Spain, a criminal investigation was opened for money laundering for the oil-for-food program because of illicit profits through Spanish firms.
In Britain, he was fighting a civil case against the Pakistani government for the profits of Surrey Palace through a liquidation sale. He successfully used his medical diagnosis to postpone a verdict on his British trial.
In exile, he shifted between homes in New York, London, and Dubai where his three children lived.
On the night of 27 December 2007, he returned to Pakistan following Bhutto's assassination.
Zardari prevented Bhutto's autopsy in accordance with Islamic principles. He and his children attended her funeral which was held the next day. He rebuffed government allegations that the assassination was sponsored by Al-Qaida.
In Bhutto's political will, she declared Zardari as her successor for party leadership. However, his son Bilawal became Chairman of the PPP because Zardari favored Bilawal to represent Bhutto's legacy in part to avoid division within the party due to his own unpopularity. He would act as co-chairman of the PPP for at least three years until Bilawal completed his studies overseas.
The PPP and PML-N won the largest number of parliamentary seats in the February elections. After the elections, he and Sharif agreed to work together to form a coalition government ending American hopes of a power-sharing deal between him and Musharraf.
On 18 August, Musharraf resigned in order to avoid impeachment. Although Zardari favored granting Musharraf immunity from prosecution, the coalition could not reach a united decision. The coalition also could not reach a united stance on the future of the judiciary.
Elections were held within three weeks after the removal of Musharraf. He was elected President on 6 September 2008.
He is the second richest man in Pakistan with an estimated net worth of US$1.8 billion. He amassed great wealth while his wife was Prime Minister. In 2007, he received $60 million in his Swiss bank account through offshore companies under his name.
He was reported to have estates in Surrey, West End of London, Normandy, Manhattan, and Dubai. He owns a 16th century chateau in Normandy. In Britain, he used a common legal device — the purchase of property through nominees with no family link to the Bhuttos.
His Lahore home is referred to as Bilawal House II. His residence in Islamabad is called Zardari House.
He bought a 355-acre 20-bedroom luxury estate in Rockwood, Surrey in 1995 through a chain of firms, trusts, and offshore companies in 1994. The country home's refurbishments abruptly ended in October 1996, shortly before the end of Benazir Bhutto's second term.
He initially denied for eight years that he owned the property and no-one paid the bills for his work on the unoccupied mansion. Creditors forced a liquidation sale in 2004 and the Pakistani government claimed proceeds because the home was bought with money through corruption.
However, he stepped in to claim that he actually was the beneficial owner. As of November 2008, the proceeds were in a liquidator bank account while a civil case continues.
It includes two farms, lodgings, staff accommodation, and a basement under the imitation of a local pub. The front entrance to the house is covered in ivy and holly. There is a large parking area in front.
The master bedroom ceiling is created to achieve an evening sky with stars in it. The manor has nine bedrooms and an indoor swimming pool. He had sent large shipments from Karachi in the 1990s for the refurbishment of Surrey Place.
He has faced allegations from various people, including the daughter of Laila Shahzada, for acquiring stolen art to decorate the place. He earlier had plans for a helipad, nine-hole golf course, and a polo pony paddock to be installed on the property.
Before marrying Benazir Bhutto there he had no property or bank balance accept a medium class cinema in Hyderabad that too was on his father’s name.
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