I dont think any politician can match the number of challenges the President Asif Zardari has faced and is facing. The name of Bhutto sahib comes to mind but his personality and stature were such that his challengers dwarfed in the face of the power of his knowledge and astuteness. One responsive ploy from Bhutto sahib was enough to uproot his opposers whereas Asif Zardari was a nobody in politics. He was the husband of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed and this is the extent to which he had confined himself. He helped out his wife in her political undertakings and did not have any personal political ambitions. Even the public and the media knew him in this capacity and it is true that people who had been politically humiliated by Benazir Bhutto vent their frustration and anger on Asif Zardari. All the notoriety and ignominy heaped on Zardari was nothing in fact but the resentment of these people politically humiliated.
When after Mohtaramas martyrdom, Asif Zardari had to fill in as a custodian for Bilawal and had to take on the responsibilities of the party, this was in effect his first step into practical politics. The roots of PPPs traditional rivalries dated back to the Mr. Bhuttos reign. Now, the resentments and umbrages that were born when Benazir took over the part were also added to the mix. Now all of the relatives and political associates of Mr Bhutto who wanted a piece of the pie and wanted to take over Mr Bhuttos political legacy were enemies of Benazir. Similarly, Asif Zardari inherited these enmities (both Mr Bhuttos and his daughters) when he took charge of the PPP. But it is either his good fortune or his intelligence that many envious people did not go up in his arms on his ascension to the party pinnacle. A couple here, a lone voice therethey activated but soon faded.
The distinction for Zardari is that his first step into politics was as leader of the biggest party of the country. As soon as he entered the fray, elections were upon the political scene. At the conclusion of the ballot, the party did not get a decisive majority. Hence, the next challenge upon him was the making of the government. The party won only in Sindh. But the machinations of Zardari culminated in the PPP being in government everywhere except in the Punjab. This was his first sixer. Obviously, his antagonists seethed and spluttered and he was then the recipient of many below-the-belt attacks. His adversaries dug up such infirmities against him to harass him, that he had very little scope for answering any of them. For example, his biggest rival party came up with punishing Musharraf as a first condition. Zardari did not have two-thirds majority and he couldnt take on a military dictator while relying on a rival party for support. But without using the might of the Parliament, he was able to corner Musharraf so much that he had no way out but to resign.
After that, he was pressurised to restore the judiciary and the constitution. The people pressurising him knew very well that it wasnt possible to fulfill either task immediately. Their endgame was to hassle President Zardari who took all the criticism in his stride amicably and kept buying the time necessary to complete the two aforementioned restorations. As soon as the conditions were ripe for the restoration of the judiciary, the rival party announced a long march to strike when the iron is hot. By timing the movement as such, they took credit for the restoration of the judiciary which was already in the works. This is but politics.
Everybody then thought that Asif Zardari would never give up his presidential powers. This led to him being pressurised on the count of the 17th Amendment next. Again, the people pressurising him were well aware that passing an amendment is no childs play but they wanted to keep Zardari under political pressure. But he kept facing all these problems and continued with his work, eventually reversing the 17th Amendment and ceding his powers to the parliament.
People wishing for the end of this Amendment were hoping that this would reduce him to a ceremonial head of state. Again, these people were defeated to this end. On the basis of the partys power and his own acumen, he kept the government strong and effective and the people who thought that the Prime Minister would corner the President once he had his powers were bitterly disappointed. With much success, Zardari is running the government as the partys government. The prime minister has the powers but the leadership lies with the party and its head and this system is functioning so beautifully that no military ruler ever matched it in the past.
Ayub Khan faced a revolt from the ministers he himself made and Zia-ul-Haq couldnt manage a hold on his powers even though he handpicked his prime minister. Even a passive and unassuming person like Zafrullah Jamali took a stand against Pervez Musharraf and he himself now says that the real powers lay with Shaukat Aziz while he was PM.
There has never been an example of such harmonious cooperation between a prime minister and president in Pakistani history. Only Bhutto sahib and Nawaz Sharif in his last tenure kept all the powers with their own office. Otherwise, It was military rulers who ruled and whenever they wanted to lord over the prime minister after they created the assemblies, they failed. Asif Zardari has created a cohesion and harmony between the two offices in the political system with unprecedented success. This is such a terrific tradition that if the PPP continues with it, internal fights for leadership will never rear their ugly heads. Because of this, many political parties have suffered.
There are other challenges that Asif Zardari has had to face but they will not be mentioned right now. It will be apparent in a few days what those challenges were and how they were made sterile.
Now he has taken up a new challenge upon himself to pay off a 32-year old debt to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The reference filed in the Supreme Court represents a shrewd and bold move which has amazed everybody. Nobody thought that Zardari would put his government and the judiciary to such a tough test by going head with this daring move. But the time for the test is here.
It will be as difficult for the judiciary benches to decide the outcome of the case as it was for Zardari to decide about the reference. Asif Zardari has taken a step forward and now the entire history of our judiciary is on trial. This is not the case of an individual. The defendant in this case is that judiciary of Pakistan where PCO judges were sitting and our current judiciary has taken a decision regarding these PCO judges in the not-so-distant past. The people deciding Bhuttos fate were also PCO judges. Now the judiciary is in a conundrum. Will it uphold the decision regarding the PCO judges being non-functional or will it put its stamp of approval on the decision of these judges to convict an innocent public leader and ex-PM of Pakistan?
The writer is one of Pakistans most widely read columnists.