Asif Ali Zardari

Asif Ali Zardari was described by his wife, Benazir Bhutto, as the "Mandela of Pakistan." But while she was prime minister, Mr. Zardari earned another nickname: "Mr. 10 Percent," for his reputation of demanding kickbacks on government contracts. In September 2008, he became president of Pakistan after Ms. Bhutto's assassination propelled her party into control of Parliament.

Mr. Zardari has become steadily less popular since taking office, and seemingly less in control of the levers of power. In November of 2009 he ceded his position in the nation's nuclear command structure to his prime minister. The military has regained its traditional place as the prime mover in all national security issues, while the International Monetary Fund has played a large role in setting the parameters of economic policy since providing emergenyc aid after the 2008 financial crash.

But if Mr. Zardari had become something of a figurehead, he still managed to disappoint and anger much of the nation by visiting Europe while monsoon rains brought the country's worst flooding in decades in the summer of 2010.

In January 2011, Mr. Zardari's government faced a grave threat when two parties allied to his pulled out of the governing coalition. His main rival, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, then gave Mr. Zardari a list of demands, threatening to force a no-confidence vote that could provoke the collapse of the government. At the same time, Mr. Zardari lost an important supporter when the governor of the country's most populous state was shot dead by a member of his police guard.

Mr. Zardari's party eventually patched its coalition government back together, barely holding onto power, but at a price that officials in Washington had feared: the collapse of reforms critical to stabilizing the nation’s economy. To win back its allies, the government agreed to restore subsidies for fuel it had tried to trim, and to put off efforts to improve tax collection levels that are among the lowest in the world.

While he survived that crisis, his hold on power remained weak: when he addressed Parliament in March 2011 the main opposition groups all walked out, leaving him to speak to a half-empty chamber.

And the possibility remains that criminal cases against Mr. Zardari may be revived. In December 2009, the Supreme Court struck down a controversial amnesty that had dismissed corruption allegations against thousands of Pakistan's politicians, including Mr. Zardari, effectively restoring the cases against them. Mr. Zardari was a primary beneficiary of the amnesty decree, and though he enjoys immunity from prosecution as president, opponents are planning recourse through the courts to overcome that immunity, lawyers said. The amnesty decree was devised in 2007 with the help of the United States and Britain as part of a deal to engineer the comeback of Ms. Bhutto, after years in exile.

AN UNLIKELY CAREER

It was yet another twist in a political career that began with what many saw as an unlikely marriage in 1987. In the Muslim tradition, it was an arranged union with Ms. Bhutto's mother acting as marriage broker. Mr. Zardari came from a modest business family that owned a cinema.

Ms. Bhutto herself spoke soberly of what an arranged marriage entailed, saying that her five years under house arrest and, briefly, in prison under Gen. Mohammad Zia ul-Haq, had left her with little opportunity for courtship. But friends watched with fascination as her relationship with Mr. Zardari developed. Handsome, with a macho style that Ms. Bhutto told friends she first thought ridiculous, he became an important figure in her two governments, serving in her cabinet in her second term in a role that gave him a major role in approving foreign investment.

Pakistani investigators accused the couple of embezzling as much $1.5 billion from government accounts. British and American private investigators working for the government of Mr. Sharif, her political rival, produced a thick volume of documents tracing what they said were multimillion-dollar kickbacks to the Zardaris in return for government contracts and a web of bank accounts across the world used to hide the money. Ms. Bhutto and her husband vehemently rejected the allegations, charging their accusers with trying to drive her from power.

While his wife went into exile, Mr. Zardari spent eight years in prison; his release by Mr. Musharraf in 2004 was seen as an early sign in a possible alliance between Mr. Musharraf and Ms. Bhutto. When she returned in October 2007, Mr. Zardari came with her. After she was assassinated at a political rally, it was Mr. Zardari who accompanied her casket in a procession to the family burial site.

THE ZARDARI PRESIDENCY

Ms. Bhutto's will called for her eldest son to take the reins of the Pakistan People Party, which had been founded by her father, but Mr. Zardari held them for him. Riding a wave of sympathy and public outrage over her death, the party came in first in the parliamentary elections held in February 2008 elections, in which Mr. Musharraf's supporters won only 40 out of 272 seats. Days later, Mr. Zardari and Mr. Sharif announced that they would join forces to create a coalition.

In August 2008, the two men declared their intention to impeach Mr. Musharraf, who chose to resign instead. But the coalition broke up over Mr. Zardari's refusal to reinstate Supreme Court justices removed by Mr. Musharraf -- out of fear, many said, that corruption charges against him would be renewed.

On Sept. 6, Mr. Zardari handily won election as president, giving him the opportunity to govern directly, instead of through a handpicked prime minister. He declared himself in favor of continuing the alliance with the United States that had been forged under Mr. Musharraf, and launched an aggressive campaign against the Taliban and Islamic extremists who had seized much of the country's wild westernmost provinces.

He soon faced a financial crisis as well as the global financial crisis cut Pakistan off from credit. In November, Mr. Zardari reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund for a $7 billion loan.

Later in November, Mr. Zardari faced his first international crisis when gunmen launched a terrorist attack in Mumbai. When investigators in India quickly linked the attackers to a Pakistani militant group, Mr. Zardari just as quickly offered to send the head of the army's powerful intelligence service to help in the inquiry. But the government was forced to rescind the offer when the military balked. Mr. Zardari has been forced to walk a delicate line as well on the fight against the Taliban, criticizing deeply unpopular American air strikes while striking a truce with Taliban forces in some crucial regions.

THE RIVALRY WITH NAWAZ SHARIF

Mr. Zardari's intense rivalry with Nawaz Sharif, the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, remains an issue. The two tried power-sharing in 2008, but it dissolved in acrimony only a week after Mr. Sharif and Mr. Zardari banded together to force the resignation of President Pervez Musharraf.

American officials have long held Mr. Sharif at arm's length because of his close ties to Islamists in Pakistan, but some in the Obama administration are saying that those ties could be used to prod the Zardari government to confront the insurgents.

In February 2009, tensions between the president and Mr. Sharif boiled over when the Supreme Court barred Mr. Sharif and his brother, the governor of Punjab, from holding office. The move was widely seen in Pakistan as a raw political maneuver engineered by Mr. Zardari to diminish the power of the two popular opposition figures. Mr. Zardari followed up by appointing an ally as the new governor of Punjab, the country's most populous region and the heart of Mr. Sharif's support.

As protests increased, the government banned a national protest demonstration in March and arrested hundreds of political workers, deepening popular discontent with Mr. Zardari, whose popularity had already been plummeting.

Pressure mounted on the government to reach an accommodation with Mr. Sharif. Early on March 15, though, police detained Mr. Sharif at his house in Lahore, hours before he was to address a planned demonstration, and arrested supporters protesting outside his home.

But the next day, Mr. Zardari announced a surprising compromise -- he agreed to reinstate Pakistan's independent-minded former Supreme Court justice, Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Mr. Sharif had urged the move, and Mr. Zardari had for months refused. Demonstrations were called off.

It was a signal moment in Pakistan's political development: A huge demonstration forced the restoration of Mr. Chaudhry, a symbol of democracy and the rule of law. The army did not stage a coup, but insisted that the government accept a compromise.

President Zardari was severely weakened by the episode, while Mr. Sharif emerged as a leader in waiting, but with no clear path to power.