Asif Ali Zardari

He may not have the charisma of his slain wife, but he does possess her grit and the courage to fight odds. As Pakistan’s 12th occupant of the presidency, Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Asif Ali Zardari, is at the helm in one of the worst periods in the history of a country tormented by rising militancy and a daunting economic crisis.

Born a Baloch to a political family settled in Sindh, Zardari lacks also his wife’s erudition and oratorical flair. But doubts about his political savvy were quelled by the way he maneuvered Pervez Musharraf’s exit from the office he now occupies. He captured popular imagination soon after Benazir’s assassination — that caused deep alienation in Sindh — with the unifying slogan: “Pakistan khapey, Pakistan khapey (Pakistan is acceptable).” As PPP co-chairman, Zardari runs the party on behalf of his college-going son and party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, whose middle name is inspired by his belief that “nobody other than a Bhutto can keep intact the PPP and the federation (of Pakistan)”.

Often compared with former PM Nawaz Sharif, he has kept a political dialogue going with his PML counterpart after losing him as a coalition partner on two issues: restoration of the higher judiciary dismissed by Musharraf and devolution to the PM and Parliament the presidency’s oft-abused powers to dismiss elected regimes.

But the President’s strong pitch for improving ties with India has Sharif’s broad support. Many here aren’t sanguine about his ability to tame Pakistan’s terror-torn western borders with Afghanistan while promoting peace on the eastern frontiers with India. But Zardari’s quest for a united, stable and terror-free Pakistan isn’t in conflict with his dream of Indian youth in Pak-stitched jeans and his country’s cement factories feeding our infrastructure needs.