ISLAMABAD: Cake-cutting ceremonies will be held across the country today to mark 68th birthday of former president and Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) President Asif Ali Zardari. Born in Nawabshah on July 26, 1955, Zardari, who remained the country’s president from September 9, 2008 to September 9, 2013, had raised the slogan of Pakistan Khape (Long Live Pakistan) after the assassination of former prime minister and his spouse Benazir Bhutto in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi on December 27, 2007. At a time when there was despondency all over the country and some people were playing the ‘Sindh Card’, his slogan came as a sigh of relief for majority of the people who wanted the federation to remain intact. DNA
While he was head of the state, he handed over powers of the president to parliament; was a driving force behind the passage of 18th Amendment, which delegated more powers to provinces. He is also credited with the launch of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Paying glowing tributes to the former president, PPP leaders as well as parliamentarians have called him ‘King of Pakistani politics’. Federal Minister for Climate Change Sherry Rehman and PPP leader Faisal Karim Kundi have described his politics as a ‘role model’ for politicians.
Sherry has said that Zardari’s politics are marked by patience and reconciliation. “I think he should write an autobiography because people are anxiously waiting for it,” she suggested They have also prayed for his long life.
