As an investment minister in his wife’s administration in the 1990s, Mr Zardari was accused by political rivals of taking personal commissions on government contracts.
Pakistan’s state anti-corruption body claims he has amassed a property empire worth almost £1 billion, with a chateau in France, homes in Britain, Spain and Florida, and bank accounts in Switzerland.
He has been accused of playing a role in the murder of his brother-in-law, Mir Murtaza Bhutto. He is also alleged to have arranged for a bomb to be tied to the leg of a businessman and sent him to withdraw money as a pay-off.
He has always denied the allegations, which led to him spending eight years in prison, maintaining they were politically motivated. But they have endured under successive Pakistani administrations and continue to dog him even in the role of president.
Born in Karachi in 1955, the son of a wealthy Sindhi tribal leader, he married Mrs Bhutto, the daughter of the first elected prime minister of Pakistan, in 1987. His political ambitions were realised under his wife, who came to power as prime minister the following year.
His first spell in prison followed shortly afterwards but on his release in 1993, Mrs Bhutto was back in power and immediately appointed him a minister in her government.
He returned to prison when his wife again lost power in 1996, this time for eight years, until he was bailed in 2004 while facing charges including corruption and conspiracy to murder. The charges were formally dropped as part of an amnesty brokered by Gen Pervez Musharraf, the former president, in 2007, but they continue to undermine him.
Following Mrs Bhutto’s assassination in December 2007, he was catapulted into the leadership of his wife’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), becoming president after a wave of sympathy carried it to power. But Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau, which led a successful court bid to have the amnesty overturned, has suggested he used the proceeds of corrupt deals on his property portfolio.
He is said to have interests in three properties in London, but it was his ownership of 335-acre Rockwood House in the North Downs in Surrey that came to symbolize his wealth and ambition. He is said to have bought the £4 million mock Tudor pile partly because he had fallen in love with the local pub, the Dog and Pheasant. When the landlord refused to sell him the pub, he is said to have had a replica built in the basement of the house. The property also boasted polo pitches, a stud farm and a golf course. Faced with claims that he had bought the house with money made illegally, he denied he was even the owner, asking: “How can anyone think of buying a mansion in England when people in Pakistan don’t even have a roof over their heads?”
It was only after the house had been sold and the Pakistani authorities tried to seize some of the money that he acknowledged his ownership.
