Zardari, who joined forces with rival PML-N before Nawaz Sharif's party pulled out of the ruling coalition last month, was instrumental in ending the nine-year reign of former President Pervez Musharraf, after unseating the pro-Musharraf PML-Q in the February general elections.
After initial reluctance, he was set to impeach Musharraf in alliance with Sharif and had prepared a charge-sheet, when the former military ruler resigned from the top post on August 18, 2008.
Following Sharif's pullout from the coalition government on August 25, Zardari jumped into the fray and filed his nomination for the Presidential elections.
The election of Zardari to the country's top post proved to be a dramatic turning point in the political career of the PPP leader, whose public image was so bad that his party kept him out of the public eye as much as possible even during the campaigning for February polls.
Image: An employee cleans a poster of Benazir Bhutto outside Zardari's under-construction mansion in Nawabshah.
Photographs: Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images
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