The Zardari Presidency: A Book Review

For decades now, an enigma called Pakistan has been a question of perpetual quandary for analysts and strategists of the globe due to the hybrid nature of the polity the country follows, where the role of the military outwits that of elected civilian leaders. Many scholars have analysed this complicated relationship from many perspectives.

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The most recent of those accounts will be The Zardari Presidency (2008-2013): Now It Must Be Told by Farhatullah Babar. Published by Rupa Publications, the book delves deep into how the earlier presidency of Asif Ali Zardari was shaped by intense conflict with Pakistan’s deep state, judiciary, and various entrenched power networks in the country. 

Farhatullah Babar, President Zardari's close aide and presidential spokesperson, asserts that during the Zardari presidency, his manoeuvring was crucial for the survival of the democratic political system in Pakistan, highlighting how democracy survived despite, not because of, the prevailing system. Divided into ten sections, the book revolves around the struggle between the civilian government, military establishment, and judiciary.

While the element of dramatisation can be seen in the narration of a few events, overall, the book tries to provide a transparent reinvention of the events that occurred during that presidency. In the author's own words, "It [the Book] is a personal recollection of a witness and participant, from a privileged vantage point, of the momentous events that shaped the Zardari Presidency and impacted the nation [of Pakistan].”

From the Memogate controversy to the NRO fallout, and from the Abbottabad raids to the military intervention, the Zardari presidency between 2008 and 2013 has been known for many upheavals that occurred in the country. But the most critical of all has to be Pakistan's 18th Amendment to the country's constitution, which significantly decentralised power from the central government to the provinces and restored the parliamentary nature of government, subsequently ceding the president's authority to parliament.

The book highlights how Zardari became the first leader in the history of Pakistan to give up power for the sake of the people. The author, being closely associated with President Zardari, provides the humanistic perspective of Pakistan's politics, where he portrays Zardari not only as a political survivor and strategist who navigates hostile institutions of the country, but also as a grieving husband & father.

In a way, he ardently humanises President Zardari without turning the book into any form of hagiography. More than 500 pages long, the narrative in the book stays coherent, well-placed, and captivating.

Combining both anecdotal and analytical approaches, it provides an interesting read for Pakistan and South Asia watchers. The author writes in this context, “Behind the public persona of a calculating politician who easily allowed pragmatism to trump principles also lay a deeply human side of Asif Ali Zardari. He was a father who bore the grief of his children’s loss with quiet strength and a friend whose loyalty often defied political logic." 

The book, in addition to having its narrative richness, is also an effective intervention into the larger literature on civil-military relations in Pakistan, providing the view of an insider away from the establishment-oriented views which are dominant in discourse. Having access to power, the Author can record decision-making procedures, informal negotiations, and institutional pressures that hardly find their way to official records and scholarly studies.

Simultaneously, such proximity also gives subjectivity and partial focus a matter of concern, especially in the depiction of the critics and the opponents of Zardari in the context of the judiciary system and the military. However, instead of undermining the work, this positionality explains the worth of the book: it is not a disinterested chronicle, but a partisan testimony, which makes the book open to critical dialogue.

The text acts as a primary-source narrative to scholars, students, and policy analysts who are seeking support for more structural and theoretical explanations of the political instability in Pakistan. Ultimately, the book succeeds in underscoring a central paradox of Pakistani democracy, making it an indispensable, if contested, contribution to contemporary South Asian political discourse.

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BY DARSHAN GAJJAR

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