Asif Zardari, Pakistan's Most Powerful Leader Since Mohammad Jinnah

Also, he is a domestic terrorist with charges pending against him of rape, murder by hire, and the most dangerous crime: treason.

Good Luck Pakistan! I am so shocked to see a terrorist running Pakistan.

Personally i dont like zardari, but looking at presidents and politicians of paksitan, who was great? none. All were thieves(except few) and if one more is there what is problem. Nothing new.

I think your question is rather invalid and you have seem to have limited knowledge of History of Pakistan. Mr. Zardari is not most powerful man, Pakistan has and is run by ISI and Military buffoons.Before you make any comments Please some Due Diligence

Let me explain:

Bhutto family were Rajput feudal lord and politician.

Asif Zardari also served as a Senator until the October 1999 coup by General Pervez Musharraf, in which Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was ousted and the Senate and assemblies were both dissolved.

History of ISI: The ISI became even more deeply involved in domestic politics under General Yahya Khan, notably in East Pakistan, where operations were mounted to ensure that no political party should get an overall majority in the general election. An amount of Rs 29 lak was expended for this purpose, and attempts were made to infiltrate the inner circles of the Awami League. The operation was a complete disaster.Mr. Bhutto promoted General Zia-Ul-Haq in part because the Director of ISI, General Gulam Jilani Khan, was actively promoting him. General Zia, in return, retained General Jilani as head of ISI after his scheduled retirement. The ISI became much more effective under the leadership of Hameed Gul. The 1990 elections are widely believed to have been rigged. The Islami Jamhoori Ittehad [IJI] party was a conglomerate formed of nine mainly rightist parties by the ISI under Lt General Hameed Gul to ensure the defeat of Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in the polls.

Both families were very wealthy and rulers of Sindhi- I hope I do not have to tell you history of Sindh. The Sindh was center of the ancient Indus civilization, it was annexed to the Persian Achaemenian Empire in the 6th century BC. Conquered by Alexander the Great in 325 BC, it was part of the Mauryan empire in the 3rd century BC. It fell to the Arabs c. AD 711. In the 16th – 17th centuries it was ruled by the Mughals. It came under British control in 1843. After Pakistan's independence, Sindh was integrated into the province of West Pakistan but in 1970 was reestablished as a separate province. It is arid except in the irrigated Indus River valley, where cotton, wheat, and rice are grown and where the population is concentrated.

Mr. Zardari has been elected very much democratically in Pakistan, International Powers like Britain, USA, and your neighbors India, were tired of dealing 40 years with military rule. Who is not corrupt in Pakistan? As per GOA $3.7 Billion are missing during Pervez Musharraf days, now who is corrupt. Government kept President Asif Zardari in Jail for 9 years and were unable to bring case against him. Pakistan is going through major Financial crunch in 60 years. Remember Democracy and People Power make President Zardari Powerful.

Additional reforms of the ISI have been made. Most notable was the decision to disband the Kashmir and Afghanistan units. Both these groups have promoted Islamic fundamentalist militancy throughout South Asia. Some officials have been forced to retire and others have been transferred back to the military. Intelligence experts have estimated that these moves would slash the size of the ISI by close to 52%.

In a recent report Global Trends 2015, the CIA indicated that as Pakistan proceeds down its present path of misgovernance and economic decline, the influence of right wing militant groups is going to increase. The report indicates that with lawlessness s preading across Pakistan, the authority of the Central Government could well become restricted to the Punjab province and such urban centres as Karachi.

Given this political isolation, ISI will find it difficult to defy the Islamic parties such as the JI and the JUI that are committed to jehad against India. It would serve little purpose to negotiate with a military dictator i f he is unwilling or unable to secure an end to extremist and terrorist violence

Zardari - a leader!?!? you must be kidding me! what is he leading us into? unstable country?!

Jinnah gave us a country and Zardari is destroying it. Now how can we even compare the two?!!? disappointed, i am!!!

Being powerful is one thing and being a leader is another. he's powerful no doubt about it but for the wrong cause (his cause actually).
Remember, power corrupts and absolute power, absolutely corrupts.

@ Ramesh:
My friend the article was about the strenght or weakness of mr. Zardari.......in the shadow of that you are tring to spit ur frustration against ISI (like a typical superstitious indian:)...)

your are elaborating the whole picture with your own perespective, but the fact is, Zardari, regardless of the power he has, is the most disliked leader in pakistan as far as the un-biased general opinion of the people of pakistan is concerned.

Zardari's complete and absolute lack of a moral compass.

I might want to gently remind my good friend Ramesh, that Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany under a Democratic process...

Wagner:

Your answers was most ridiculous reply to any question I have ever heard, How can you compare Zardari to Hitler. I guess William Shakespeare said: Common scene is called common scene it is not common to all.Please don't write rubbish next time. Do you know history of British Raj.Please don't waste time.

Zadari is pro Zadari not pro American. He may well find out like Sadam Hussein that in the dance with the devil that he has undertaken there are no winners. He is a murderer and a theif. I did not think the people of Pakistan were so stupid.
The world is in a sad place.
Ari

I think what makes Zardari powerful is the fact that he is in control at a time when Army would not intervene due to Army intervention and bad repo earned in last several years. And since no other checks are there on him, he can do what he wants.
I do not agree and like to compare him with Jinah.
I however, strongly believe that he is in Pakistan to give us a big set back. Big powers may be using his bad repo to do some bug dirty work that at the end will make him bad not them.

And he may be the mrderer of his own wife since he benefited more from her death than any one else.
He seems to be a great politician (a cunning and narcastic one) or he is performing a very well written script of an outside think tank. I can not imagine any one had ever thought of him becoming a president at the time of BBs death. He kept Amin faheem in front during election, he side lined him for the PM post, he played with Musharaf and Sharifs and at the end got the ultimate chair without doing any thing with the judges. He has Aitezaz ahsun in his pocket as well and thus no unrest has been scheduled for judiciary issue resolution. His Swiss cases were resolved mysteriously?

In his watch, US has started attacking within Pakistan (in my mind this is not good for US long term interests either).

He has played a wonderful hand(or again a script) and now he is a powerful person in PK.

The need of the day is to make sure that we keep a close eye on his actions and make use of our political right(if and where ever available) to not let him screw us up.
May God Help Us

Please compare apple with apple. Asif Zardari is not even the toe of the shoe of Mohammad Jinah. Do not show such a disrespect to our founder with a highly corrupt and contoversial person.

No one is comparing any leaders. No modern Pakistani leader can be compared with Father Jinnah. Will Zardari make Karachi in to the next Dubai? Will he turn Lahore in to the Next Tokyo? Well, with the realistic answer of No, he is a person we have to work with. My article is an opinion, not fact or fiction.

Asif Zardari may be powerful, politically since he is more powerful than most leaders of Pakistan in Pakistan's recent past. Father Junejo did not have the powers of Asif Zardari, nor did Nawaz Sharif nor even General Haq. The problem is that President Zardari can run the nation the way he wants, without taking public opinion in to consideration or even the opinion of the political partners.

Comparing Father Jinnah with any modern Pakistan leader is like comparing George Washington with George Bush, you can't compare, that's when you mention the word "Since." Hakeem Saeed and Mohammad Junejo were great leaders who defined Pakistan with their intellect and simplicity. Yet, unfortunately, not many institutions are named after them.

One can point fingers at who is in control. But in reality, the finger will come to us for it is we that have elected the leaders. Not all of us voted for the PPP, but most of the people who voted were the poor.

Let's not attack each other, but join hands in building a better Pakistan. Us attacking each other will lead us no where.

In the end, it is the masses that control a country. When the masses voted, many voted for the PPP, many in Karachi voted for the MQM, many in Punjab voted for the PML-N, and many in NWFP voted for the ANP. We, the Educated, must give the masses, An Option of choices to vote for. When we fail to do that, we are to blame for their conditions. I hope that new leaders emerge. I hope that some who have commented do get involved in the political process. Their future is in stake and so is the future of their children.

FACTS ON THE GROUND IN PAKISTAN
Reference to the Islamic history and Pakistan’s independance period, I want to go a step further and will recomend to select/elect every Chief of Army staff as president after retirement and the present Army chief should be be given extra time for his oustanding services at national and international level and all other Corps.

Commanders of the Army and COS of Airforce and Navy should be apponited Governors and Deputy Governors of the provinces and regions ( by creating regional governments in all four provinces, 2 in Punjab 1 in each province- these regions already exist based on language, culture and history , such as Saraiki, Potahari, Upper Sind-Sukkar, Dera Ismail Khan in NWFP and Gawadar- Balouch Area. And all additional bureaucrates who love to live in provincial capitals should be trasfered to these remote areas of the country.

These new regions should invite and attrect the foreigner and Pakistani origin people to invest in the area to creat jobs and eliminate poverty.) This is the only way we can stop further intereption/ coup in Pakistan . After all armed forces personnel are wel diciplined and organized . And above all represent Pakistan’s divercified population.And it;s leadership do not transfer within family but earned by hardwork and talents only.

Every second family in Pakistan is represented in the army one way or the other and the Pakistan Army is the only ever lasting popular party-yes it’s an important ruling party other than Bhuttos and anti-Bhuttos, Sharif brothers. With this arrangement no one is loser except few feudals and industrialists, who reprent non of the masses in Pakistan. We already have a quota system applied for superior services since 30 years and had killed thousands of innocent talented young people, why not try this arrangement for the welfare of the country which will effect none but very few so called politicians who after all deal with generals, behind the curtains.And it’s good to know that supporters of these politician are 500/600 Mafia families who live in 125 districts in Pakistan and provide so called public leadership for national, provincial and local levels.

Any restriction to stop them is useless. Recent example of education condition brought their unseen educated women forward in politics. All 8000/9000 candidates in recent elections were from the same mafia group who are the biggest law breakers and around 1000 leading law breakers have been elected as new law makers who will take care of themselves but none. They all are involved in worst kind of crimes on this earth against humanity with the colaboration of junior police officials.An enquiry by a nuetral agency may prove my claim.

WOULD THE EDITOR PUBLISH THIS LETTER in the larger interest of the nation. KHWAJA AFTAB ALI,(a former Secretary Iranian Embassy, Saudi Arabia,1975-88), first and only post graduate of Intellectual Property Laws on scholarship from USA. Residing in Orlando, Florida.U.S.A. email.all_languages @ hotmail.com phone 4077293983