The Second Presidency

Asif Ali Zardari made history as he assumed the Presidency for a second term. Yesterday, he was elected as the 14th President of Pakistan from an electoral college which carried the stigma of being incomplete as it went on to elect the head of the state and supreme commander of the armed forces. This aspect of political bitterness as his rival candidate, Mehmood Khan Ackakzai, called for postponement of the vote will continue to cast an element of instability, and controversy, per se. But the fact that the ruling coalition candidate, Zardari, bagged 411 votes against 181 for an opposition in disarray, at least, cements his five-year tenure at the helm of the federation, and brings on him an immense responsibility to choreograph the chariot of democracy as per the dictates of the Constitution.

Zardari, eulogised for his politics of reconciliation and making inroads in adversity, had a smooth sailing from the electoral college comprising all four provincial assemblies, as well as the Senate and the National Assembly. It made many drop their jaws as he clinched all the 47 votes cast from Balochistan Assembly; made a sweep in Sindh Assembly with 151, and bagged 255 votes from the joint sitting of the parliament. The only flip side was evident in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa where Zardari was decimated as the PTI-dominated house gave a walkover
to Ackakzai.

Notwithstanding the unfussy return to the President House, Zardari’s incumbency will remain overshadowed for not only being elected from a contentious forum whose legality is up for debate in the wake of the post-February 8 tampering of results, and also the denial of due share to the PTI-cum-Sunni Ittehad nomenclature of their reserved seats. Last but not least, the fact that the PPP co-chairperson is back under the presidential immunity umbrella, and the cases of corruption against him will get frozen, will continue to be pinching points in national discourse.

Zardari has come at the helm at a difficult and divisive phase of Pakistan’s history. Politics is highly fragmented, and the PTI under an incarcerated Imran Khan is unrelenting to accept the post-February 8 status quo. Moreover, the organs of the state are on a collision course, and this deserves some great statesmanship to steer the country out of an unprecedented crisis.

While the politician par-excellence from Nawabshah is a guru in fomenting initiatives in the realm of propitiation, his first and foremost goal should be to redress PTI’s grievances by giving them their due space, releasing all political prisoners and calling for a charter of reconciliation. As Zardari believes in democracy begetting more democracy, it is time for reforming the state apparatus and ensuring that law and the Constitution take precedence over petty political interests.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2024.

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