Pakistani president’s tenure appears increasingly fragile
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Asif Ali Zardari, who entered office 14 months ago on a wave of post-dictatorship good will and sympathy for his slain wife, Benazir Bhutto, faces growing public anger and disillusionment over his presidency. Some critics are urging him to step down, and others predict he will be forced from office within months.
In interviews, opinion articles, and talk shows, a diverse range of people are denouncing Zardari as a corrupt and indifferent ruler. They accuse him of living in posh isolation while his country battles Islamist extremists, shortages of energy and food, and a host of other problems.
Although they are considered unlikely to stage a coup, army officials have made no secret of their unhappiness over Zardari’s compliant relationship with Washington. The United States is allied with Pakistan in the war against extremists, but Pakistani army leaders here remain wary of US ties with India, and they were infuriated by the controls on military spending included in a recent American aid package for Pakistan.
Poor and working-class Pakistanis, meanwhile, blame the government for protracted shortages of gas, electricity, and staple foods. They also feel increasingly unprotected, with more than 350 civilians killed in suicide bombings in two months.
“There is a sense that the government is adrift and rudderless at a time the nation needs strong leadership,’’ said Rifaat Hussain, a professor at Quaid-i-Azam University, adding that Zardari is widely seen as using his power for personal benefit. “There is huge disillusionment,’’ he said.
Zardari’s deepening unpopularity has put Washington in a bind because of its avowed commitment to bolstering democratic politics in Pakistan after a decade of military rule. If he is forced from power, either on old corruption charges or through a collapse of the ruling coalition, analysts said, Washington might have to deal with new leaders who are less friendly and no better able to solve Pakistan’s problems.
Zardari rarely gives long interviews or unscripted speeches, but aides insist he is not the man his critics portray. They describe him as hardworking, tough-minded, and bursting with ideas for improving the economy. They say he is not corrupt, attributing such accusations to a mix of political rivalry and the country’s sensationalistic TV talk-show culture.
“The president lives in a glass house, and he knows his responsibilities to the country. I can assure you there is no wheeling and dealing going on,’’ said Fauzia Wahab, a legislator and spokeswoman for the ruling Pakistan People’s Party. “People keep bringing up old cases, but it is just to humiliate and ridicule him. To be negative is fashionable.’’
Legally, the issue most likely to bring Zardari down is corruption. A businessman known as “Mr. Ten Percent’’ when his late wife was prime minister in the 1990s, he was accused of orchestrating kickbacks and spent nearly eight years in prison on various charges, although he was never convicted of a crime.
For the moment at least, Zardari cannot be prosecuted on any past charges, an immunity he gained under a provisional constitutional change decreed by his predecessor, General Pervez Musharraf, before leaving office. But Parliament unexpectedly did not give the decree final approval last month, and it is due to expire Saturday.
After then, the Supreme Court, led by the iconoclastic chief justice whose reinstatement Zardari fought to prevent, could declare his election illegal and reopen cases against him and some of his aides.
Even though he will probably not be sent back to prison, the specter of prosecution could deal Zardari a fatal political blow, leaving leaders scrambling to form a new government in the middle of a war against terrorism.
