Asif Ali Zardari

1955 – —

PresidentPakistan Peoples Party

Title & tenure

11th and 14th President of Pakistan (2008–2013, 2024–present)

In office: 2008 – present

Predecessor:: Pervez Musharraf (1st term); Arif Alvi (2nd term)
Successor:: Mamnoon Hussain (after 1st term)

Biography

Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto, took over leadership of the Pakistan Peoples Party after her assassination in 2007 and was elected President the following year on a wave of public sympathy, becoming the first PPP president since Bhutto's own father; he returned to the presidency for a second term in 2024.

Achievements

Signed the Eighteenth Amendment (2010), which restored a parliamentary system of government and stripped the presidency of the powers to dismiss the Prime Minister and dissolve the National Assembly that had destabilized earlier governments
Became the first elected civilian President in Pakistan's history to complete a full five-year term and hand over power through a democratic transition (2013)
Elected to a second, non-consecutive presidential term in 2024 as part of a PPP–PML(N) coalition arrangement

Key events

Assassination of his wife Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, after which he assumed PPP leadership
Co-chaired the PPP-led coalition government (2008–2013) alongside Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and later Raja Pervez Ashraf
Eighteenth Amendment (2010): voluntarily gave up major presidential powers, reshaping the office for his successors

Legacy

Zardari is credited with voluntarily reducing the presidency's powers through the Eighteenth Amendment, a rare instance of a Pakistani president curbing rather than expanding the office, and with completing Pakistan's first full civilian-to-civilian democratic transition.

How it ended

Completed his first term in 2013 and was succeeded by Mamnoon Hussain; elected again to the presidency in 2024, serving as of this writing.