{"id":2177,"date":"2013-09-08T10:38:59","date_gmt":"2013-09-08T04:38:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bartabangla.com\/english\/?p=2177"},"modified":"2013-09-08T10:38:59","modified_gmt":"2013-09-08T04:38:59","slug":"pakistans-zardari-ends-term-in-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/pakistans-zardari-ends-term-in-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan&#8217;s Zardari ends term in office"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/jardari.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-2178\" alt=\"jardari\" src=\"http:\/\/www.bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/jardari.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a>BartaBangla Desk :: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari stepped down Sunday, leaving his official residence after a record five years in power overshadowed by worsening security and a weakening economy.<\/p>\n<p>The 58-year-old widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was treated to an honour guard from the armed forces and shook hands with staff before leaving the plush presidential palace.<\/p>\n<p>He was driven away in a black luxury saloon car from the sprawling residence at the foot of the lush green Margalla hills on the outskirts of Islamabad.<\/p>\n<p>Never popular and always shrouded in controversy, Zardari &#8212; once jailed for 11 years for alleged corruption &#8212; is now likely to split his time between Pakistan and Dubai.<\/p>\n<p>He retires six years after his wife&#8217;s murder, having presided over the only civilian government in Pakistan to complete a full term in office and hand over to another at the ballot box.<\/p>\n<p>His successor Mamnoon Hussain is to be sworn in on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>A businessman and close ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Hussain&#8217;s low-key persona and lack of personal power base will put him in stark contrast to Zardari.<\/p>\n<p>Zardari is going to Lahore, hoping to open a new era for his Pakistan People&#8217;s Party (PPP), which suffered a humiliating electoral defeat to the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) in May.<\/p>\n<p>Aides deny that Zardari, unpopular and divisive within the PPP, will spend most of his time abroad and insist he will concentrate on trying to revive the centre-left party.<\/p>\n<p>The PPP ran a rudderless general election campaign and has been thrust into its greatest crisis, suffering a crushing electoral defeat without a Bhutto at its helm.<\/p>\n<p>Zardari said in an interview broadcast on Saturday that he would not run as prime minister in future and would instead re-organise the party by shuttling around the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BartaBangla Desk :: Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari stepped down Sunday, leaving his official residence after a record five years in power overshadowed by worsening security and a weakening economy. The 58-year-old widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto was treated to an honour guard from the armed forces and shook hands with staff before<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-others"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2177\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bartabangla.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}