Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari was elected as the 14th president of Pakistan on Saturday after he secured 716 votes from the Senate of Pakistan, the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.

Born on July 26, 1955, in Karachi, Zardari is the son of Hakim Ali Zardari, a tribal chief and prominent landowner.

He was married to Pakistan’s first female prime minister Shaheed Benazir Bhutto.

Zardari served as the 11th president of Pakistan from 2008 to 2013 and was the first politician to complete a full term in office. He has been a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan since August 2018.

The former president returns to the President’s Office for the second time. He has been leading the PPP since December 27, 2007, after the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

In January 2008, he was elected as Co-Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party following the assassination of his wife.

Zardari served as a member of the National Assembly from 1990 to 1993 and from 1993 to 1996.

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After Benazir Bhutto’s return to power in 1993, he served as minister of the environment (1993–96) and federal minister for investment (1995–96) in her government.

Under the 18th Amendment, he gave away the presidential powers to strengthen parliamentary democracy, bolstered provincial autonomy and coined political reconciliation.

The PPP government under his leadership got a consensus among all the political parties on the seventh National Finance Commission (NFC) award which increased the provinces’ financial autonomy.

The PPP-led government also unveiled the Aghaz-i-Huqooq-i-Balochistan package aimed at fast-track progress and development in the province.

To eradicate crippling polio disease from the country, President Asif Ali Zardari also launched Pakistan’s National Emergency Action Plan 2011.

The Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) was also a Zardari’s brainchild that became the first widely acknowledged social safety net in the region.

In 2013, former Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and former President Asif Ali Zardari agreed to build an economic corridor between the two countries which gave birth to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The Belt and Road Initiative further enhanced the mutual connectivity between the two countries.