Asif Ali Zardari: Pakistan's Political Patriarch
Suffering from the lingering image of a money-laundering husband of a world-famous political icon, Benazir Bhutto, former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari is fast emerging as an intellectual patriarch of Pakistani politics. In a country where politicians are crude and petty, Zardari comes across as a statesman with a profound sense of reality mixed with intriguing idealism. For many Pakistanis, Zardari is still no more than a power-hungry widower of a murdered heroine. On a closer look, however, one finds that Zardari has been on the cutting edge of enlightenment in a conservative country sandwiched between militarism and Talibanization. During his term in office as the President of Pakistan (2008-2013), and more importantly as the Co-Chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), a party he inherited much like property from his in-laws, Zardari promoted women at key posts. He selected a woman as the Speaker of the National Assembly, making her the first woman in Pakistan to l