PROFILE: PPP CO-CHAIR ASIF ZARDARI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ISLAMABAD 001368 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/12/2018 TAGS: PGOV PINR PK PREL SUBJECT: PROFILE: PPP CO-CHAIR ASIF ZARDARI REF: A. KARACHI 159 ¶B. ISLAMABAD 980 ¶C. LAHORE 114 ¶D. LAHORE 115 ¶E. ISLAMABAD 405 ¶F. ISLAMABAD 933 ¶G. ISLAMABAD 1019 Classified By: Anne W. Patterson, Reasons 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (U) This profile of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari is one of a series on Pakistan's new political leadership. Political Plans -------------- ¶2. (C) On March 22, Zardari announced the nomination of Yousef Gillani as the PPP candidate for Prime Minster and said that Gillani would hold the position for a full five year term. However, Zardari has been ambiguous on his own plans to take over as PM (Refs B and C). The first concrete indication will be whether he runs in a by-election to take Benazir's National Assembly seat (or another open constituency) in April/May. Zardari previously served as Federal Minister for Environment (1993-96),Federal Minister for Investment (1995-96),and as a Senator (1997-99). See reftels for additional background information. Leadership Style -------------- ¶3. (C) According to a variety of observers, Zardari's eleven years of imprisonment have matured him since he was disparagingly known in the 1990's as "Mr. Ten Percent." Musharraf's advisors say they prefer working more with Zardari than they did with Benazir because he is a straightforward, practical dealmaker. That is another way of saying that he lacks Benazir's mastery of the Byzantine labyrinth of Pakistani politics. Zardari admits "I am no Benazir," but he has been moving deliberately with increasing finesse to establish contacts and seal his own loyalties within the PPP. ¶4. (C) The way in which Zardari chose Yousef Gillani as the PPP's choice for Prime Minister illustrates his current leadership style. During a press conference three days after Benazir's death, Zardari indicated publicly that Amin Faheem would be the PPP's choice for Prime Minister. After party consultations, however, Zardari decided that Faheem was a bad choice. He told Ambassador that Faheem had spent most of the campaign in Dubai (with his latest 22 year-old wife) and was simply too lazy to be Prime Minister. Others suggest that the class difference between them -- Faheem's family is socially and spiritually above Zardari's -- also played into the equation. Zardari appeared unconcerned over considerable inter-party and public criticism of his decision to delay an announcement of his choice for PM. Even after he privately had chosen Gillani, Zardari continued to consult PPP members from the National Assembly and the provinces and delayed the announcement until the last minute. In the meantime, he sent emissaries to convince Faheem's friends to desert him; some suggested he planted negative press stories about Faheem. ¶5. (C) Zardari has a limited educational background and no military experience. He appears to study his briefs, and demonstrates a general, if not yet deep, grasp of the issues (Ref D). In key high-pressure situations, including immediately after Benazir's assassination, he called for calm and avoided the easy route of spouting inflammatory rhetoric. The Kitchen Cabinet -------------- ¶6. (C) Zardari initially kept Benazir's staff and advisors but is gradually moving some of them aside for his friends and cronies from his childhood or days in jail. Within the party rank and file, there continues to be considerable doubt over Zardari's right or capability to be PPP leader. This lack of confidence informed Zardari's shrewd decision to name Benazir's son Bilawal (a direct descendant of party founder Zulfakir) as PPP Co-Chair, whom Zardari is now grooming ISLAMABAD 00001368 002 OF 003 politically. ¶7. (C) Even after Benazir's death, Zardari continues to feel quite comfortable with strong women. PPP Information Minister-Designate Sherry Rehman provides Zardari with guidance on party politics and public affairs. She has been a key negotiator on coalition negotiations to apportion ministries. Rehman also is credited with giving Zardari a sartorial makeover and controlling his press conferences. Zardari's sisters, Fairal (Nawabsha mayor) and Azra Fazal (National Assembly Member from Nawabsha) provide him with political advice; Azra's guidance is more weighty. Rukhsana Bangash is his Political Secretary and "gatekeeper." ¶8. (C) He receives legal advice from Farooq Naek, who could become Attorney General, and Senator Latif Khosa, potential Law Minister. Academic Husein Haqqani, who handles Zardari's business interests in the United States, provides Zardari with guidance on foreign affairs and may become secretary to the National Security Council. Zardari listens to economic guidance from former PPP Finance Minister Sayed Naveed Qamar and shoe magnate Ahmed Mukhtar, who grew close to Zardari while the two were in jail together from 2000 to 2001. Legal Troubles -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Zardari was jailed from 1997 to 2004 on charges ranging from corruption to murder, but he has argued these charges were politically motivated. He was arrested for the first time in 1990 on blackmail charges for allegedly tying a remote-control bomb to the leg of a UK-based Pakistani businessman, Murtaza Bukhari, and sending him into a bank to withdraw money from his account as a pay-off. These charges were dropped in 1992 when Benazir was elected Prime Minister. Zardari was re-jailed in 1996 on corruption charges. In 1997, while still in jail, he won a seat in Pakistan's Senate that he held until the events of October 1999. Since his 2004 release from jail, Zardari has spent most of his time in New York. ¶10. (SBU) He was charged in Swiss Courts with depositing $55 million in bribes into a bank account there. Swiss Courts convicted him in 2003 for laundering $13 million linked to alleged kickbacks, but the verdict was thrown out on appeal in October 2007. The Swiss chief prosecutor agreed to postpone action on other allegations until Pakistan's Supreme Court ruled on the validity of the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO),which provides Zardari amnesty from corruption charges levied from 1986 to 1999. Since the NRO was upheld on February 28, all of the remaining corruption charges against Zardari in Pakistan have been dismissed, including those relating to the charges against him in Switzerland. ¶11. (SBU) Zardari also faced decade-old civil proceedings in the U.K., as the GOP accused him of using illicit funds to acquire an estate in Surrey. Despite appeals by GOP lawyers, British courts had twice determined there was insufficient evidence to prove that corruption proceeds funded the estate. GOP lawyers had been pursuing civil charges in the U.K. but British courts terminated the case March 20, 2008 after a National Accountability Bureau prosecutor appeared before the court and said that corruption charges against Zardari were withdrawn in Pakistan according to the NRO. The UK Surrey case has now been dropped as well. Personal History -------------- ¶12. (C) The Zardari tribe is originally from Iranian Balochistan and resettled in the Nawabshah district of Sindh several centuries ago. Asif Zardari's family is Shia and minor landholders. Asif is the son of Hakim Ali Zardari, a mid-level businessman and feudal lord. Post contacts suggest the Zardari tribe has little social standing with the Sindhi elite; there is a story that as children, Sindhis were told "a Zardari stole it" if something went missing. ¶13. (C) Zardari was born on July 21, 1956. The Sindhi elite remember his father is remembered as a humble petitioner who frequently requested PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto's help, once even lying down in front of his car. Even after Bhutto's ISLAMABAD 00001368 003 OF 003 assassination on December 27, 2007, some of Bhutto's family, friends, and former classmates refused to call on Zardari, considering him socially unacceptable. ¶15. (C) Bhutto described her marriage to Zardari in detail in her autobiography, "Daughter of the East." She said she agreed to an arranged marriage with Zardari--"a perfect stranger"--who had been vetted and approved by her family. Her wedding was a small family ceremony followed by a public celebration with over 200,000 supporters. Bhutto's friends say she fell in love with Zardari later in their marriage. ¶16. (C) Reportedly, Zardari's open philandering incensed her brother Murtaza, who felt that Zardari's actions damaged the family's reputation and honor. Murtaza was killed in a police ambush outside his home in September 1996, and the Pakistani public widely holds Zardari responsible for Murtaza's death. (Comment: The murder/conspiracy case against Zardari is still active in Pakistan but is unlikely to be pursued. End Comment.) ¶17. (C) Zardari has three children with his late wife: Bilawal, Bakhtwar, and Asifa. Family friends say that the children were closer to Benazir until her death, but Zardari has since become interested in grooming Bilawal for public life. Zardari's educational history is murky. His official biography says he attended a commercial college called Pedinton School, but he tells press interviewers that he obtained a bachelor of education degree from the London School of Economics and Business. His political critics question his educational qualifications, which poses complications for Zardari's political ambitions because of the requirement that parliamentary candidates hold a higher-education degree. Zardari suffers from diabetes and a spinal ailment. BODDE