With supreme confidence, he says, he will pick the next prime minister of Pakistan. “It’s a promise”, he told a party throng at the 38th death anniversary of Pakistan’s first popularly elected prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in Garhi Khuda Baksh, near the last resting place of the Bhuttos, earlier this month. 
Coming from Asif Zardari, the former president and Co-Chairperson of Pakistan People Party (PPP), it sounded like the emptiest boast. But is it?
Logic would suggest his party is pretty much done, if not entirely dusted, given its comparatively thin national presence, poor governance record in Sindh – the only province it now rules, but with too many caveats for its liking – and the generally lacklustre public support in the lead-up to the next general elections in 2018. 
But you never discount Asif Zardari, the wily old fox of Pakistani politics, about whom veteran politician Javed Hashmi once famously, if a touch exasperatedly, suggested that one needed to have a “PhD in politics” to understand Zardari’s trade!
The ‘PhD’ pertains to Zardari’s uncanny deft hand in dealing with the most challenging situations, and movers-and-shakers without fuss. Few gave his party any real chance after Benazir Bhutto, his illustrious spouse and two-time former prime minister, was assassinated in 2007 just ahead of a hotly contested election. 
But Zardari not only stepped into the vacuum, using the sympathy wave to take his party home and stun all comers by quietly working up the permutation to install himself as president, he also craftily defied the odds to complete both his and the party’s five-year stint – a milestone not even achieved by his far more capable, popular and savvy spouse. 
If critics put that last bit down to the convenience of being in the centre of power, how would one countenance his checkmating Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in impossibly, getting his man elected as the chairman of Senate – upper house of a bicameral legislature – two years ago?
The fact is that Zardari in keeping with his “reconciliation” jugglery was willing to cede more space to aspiring political partners than was the PML-N, whose hubris in presuming the advantage of being in power was enough to keep the interested flock in place fell flat. In the end, the applecart was spectacularly upset. This is but just one instance of how the fox won the day even when the chips were down. 
This is not to suggest that he is not entitled to his share of brain fades; in the summer of 2015, an agitated Zardari created ripples when he warned the powerful military to mind its business or else “we would tear you down brick by brick”. He also chided the army chief to be aware of his limits, saying unequivocally that while “you will be around for three years (the specified tenure), we are here to stay”.
The cavalier moment arrived after Dr Asim Hussain, one of the closest Zardari aides, was nabbed in 2015 and slapped with charges of terror financing during a sweeping anti-terrorism operation in Karachi, which was construed by Zardari as a ploy to keep him under the wood and control the megapolis that is considered the country’s economic lifeline.  
However, sensing that he may have breached the red line, in the backdrop of how popular the military operation was seen across Pakistan in restoring peace to Karachi, Zardari quickly flew out of the country. He returned only after General Raheel Sharif, the-then army chief, had retired and immediately, struck a conciliatory tone by calling up his successor and congratulating him. 
Things have moved swiftly after Zardari’s return with the general impression being that the incumbent khaki chief apparently wants to stay out of political ambit, which some political observers see as the most plausible explanation for the release of his aide Hussain and even the return of Sharjeel Memon, another aide, who was whiling away time abroad following his alleged involvement in massive corruption. 
Zardari, with his trademark smarmy smile, has been denying any deal – in a number of television interviews whose frequency has also noticeably, increased – in how the situation has changed almost in a U-turn weeks after his return, but for many critics it would be stretching the imagination to conceive otherwise. 
To return to the latest salvo – Zardari claiming to pick the next PM – the denouement makes for an interesting math which has largely gone unnoticed in the assumption that it may have been just another political slogan meant to keep the party flanks interested. 
At the same gathering, the PPP leader also said he would contest the parliamentary elections. Add this to the claim of picking the next PM and the deduction becomes clear that he himself would not be a candidate for the coveted slot. It is also obvious from the math that Zardari has accepted the reality that his party is in no position to win back power. So he has swiftly changed gears to the best case scenario: playing the kingmaker.
Consider. The Supreme Court interim verdict in the Panama case may have dented the ruling PML-N for now, but if Prime Minister Sharif survives the odds, the party may still be able to top the parliamentary tally, but perhaps, not get quite enough to form a government on its own at the Centre. Opposition Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf is the party most well placed to challenge the PML-N, especially after the traction it has gained from the Panama case, but again, it would be farfetched to assume it would prevail. 
This is where Zardari calculates that either of the parties would gravitate towards the PPP to be able to form a coalition government (with help from other smaller parties), and that these compulsions would eventually lead to Zardari having a decisive say in the selection of the next PM. 
Will the calculation come to pass? Only time will tell, but enough to whet the appetite, for now.

*The writer is Community Editor.