Asif Ali Zardari

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Asif Ali Zardari is the current President of Pakistan and Co-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP). He was married to Benazir Bhutto, two time former Prime Minister of Pakistan before she was assassinated in 2007.

Zardari was born July 26, 1955 and was relatively unknown in Pakistani politics until his 1987 marriage to Bhutto. When she became Prime Minister in the early 1990s, Zardari became a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, which is similar in structure to the United States House of Representatives. During Bhutto’s second term as Prime Minister, Zardari served as Minister of Environment.

Like many other Pakistani politicians, Zardari was accused of corruption and jailed for seven years from 1997 through 2004. He was later exonerated of charges, but was allegedly tortured during his time in prison. Zardari claims not to remember much of the time he spent behind bars.

Zardari became the leader of the PPP following his wife’s assassination. With Nawaz Sharif, Zardari helped lead tan effort to impeach Pervez Musharraf from presidency. Musharraf eventually bowed to internal and international pressure and resigned. Zardari was elected President immediately after, carrying a majority parliament vote of 281 out of 426 votes. The opponent garnering the most votes after Zardari was Saeeduzzaman Siddiqui, former Chief Justice of Pakistan and nominee of the Pakistan Muslim League.