Rahmatullah Buriro
History seldom repeats itself, but it often rhymes. In the global South, two political figures, born thousands of miles apart, have come to embody the same paradox of power: Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan. One lost a finger in a metal factory; the other lost eleven years of his life in prison. Yet both returned not with a sword of vengeance, but with an olive branch of reconciliation. Their stories tell us that populism can have a humane face.
The Crucible of Struggle
Lula’s story is folklore in Latin America. Born in 1945 to illiterate peasants in Pernambuco, he shined shoes and sold peanuts before becoming a lathe operator in São Paulo’s industrial belt. A press accident at 19 cost him his little finger, but gave him a lifelong identity with the working class. He rose through the metalworkers’ union during Brazil’s military dictatorship, lost three presidential elections, spent 580 days in jail on corruption charges that were later annulled, and then staged one of the most remarkable comebacks in modern politics to win a third term in 2022 and a fourth in October 2026.
Asif Ali Zardari’s crucible was different in geography, but identical in pain. Born into a Sindhi landowning family, his political baptism came not through a factory but through adversity. More than 11 years in prison, solitary confinement, physical torture that he himself described as worse than the colonial _kala pani_, and the assassination of his spouse, Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, in 2007. When most men would have chosen the path of bitterness, Zardari chose what he famously called: “Democracy is the best revenge.”
In both cases, the prison cell became a political university. As the old adage goes, _what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger_.
The Art of the Possible: Reconciliation as Statecraft
What truly binds Lula and Zardari is not their suffering, but how they governed after it.
Lula could have ruled as a radical. Instead, he became Brazil’s master conciliator. In his first two terms (2003-2010), he lifted over 30 million Brazilians out of poverty through _Bolsa Família_, not by punishing the rich, but by bringing the elite and the poor to the same table. His third term has been the same: despite a deeply polarized Brazil, he has tried to be the _bridge over troubled waters_.
Zardari earned the title of _King of Reconciliation_ in Pakistan for precisely the same reason. When he assumed the presidency in 2008, Pakistan was on the brink. The judiciary was in revolt, insurgency was raging in Balochistan and Swat, and the federation was fragile.
His response was textbook parliamentary politics. He kept alive the coalition that many thought would not last 90 days, for five years. For the first time in Pakistan’s history, a civilian parliament completed its full term (2008-2013) and peacefully transferred power. In an era where many leaders _burn bridges_, Zardari was busy _building them_ – with Nawaz Sharif through the Murree Declaration, with Baloch nationalists through the Aghaz-e-Haqooq-e-Balochistan package, and with all stakeholders in Parliament.
Two Different Legacies: Bread vs. Constitution
Here the comparison becomes even more fascinating.
Lula’s legacy is economic. He gave bread to the hungry. Bolsa Família, minimum wage hikes, and a 9% cumulative GDP growth between 2022-2025 reduced unemployment to 5.4%. He turned Brazil from a debtor nation to a creditor.
Zardari’s legacy is constitutional. If Lula gave Brazil bread, Zardari gave Pakistan the rulebook to protect that bread.
Three decisions define him:
First, the death of Article 58(2)(b).
The draconian clause that allowed the President to dismiss elected governments was the Damocles’ sword over every prime minister. Zardari, as President, signed its death warrant.
Second, the voluntary abdication of power.
Through the historic 18th Amendment in 2010, he stripped the presidency of its imperial powers and handed them to the Prime Minister and Parliament. It is rare in the developing world for a leader to _put his money where his mouth is_ and voluntarily become a ceremonial figure. Zardari did.
Third, provincial autonomy.
The 18th Amendment was Pakistan’s Magna Carta for federalism. It devolved health, education, and resources to provinces – a move that empowered Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab in a way no military ruler ever dared. In this sense, what Bolsa Família was to Brazilian federalism, the 18th Amendment is to Pakistani federalism.
The CPEC Vision.
While Lula leveraged China’s commodity boom, Zardari leveraged China’s strategic vision. Long before CPEC became a household acronym, it was Zardari who in 2008-2013 pitched the concept of a China-Pakistan energy and trade corridor, with Gwadar as its crown jewel, to Beijing. The MoUs signed during his visits laid the groundwork for what is today the backbone of Pakistan’s infrastructure and energy strategy.
Why Do People Still Lean Towards Them?
In Brazil’s 2026 runoff, polls showed Lula trailing by 2.2 million votes in the first round but ultimately winning with 51.8% because voters chose what analysts call “the known path.” Despite an approval rating that fell as low as 24% due to crime and inflation, the poor and the working class still see Lula as the guarantor of their rights.
Similarly in Pakistan, despite relentless political attacks and media trials, Zardari remains the ultimate crisis manager that the political class turns to when the system stalls. The reason is simple: in a polity obsessed with _you scratch my back, I scratch yours_ politics of revenge, he practices _let bygones be bygones_.
Both men prove a timeless political idiom: _you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar_.
The Lesson
Lula and Zardari tell us that true power is not in holding office, but in letting go of it. Lula let go of radicalism for pragmatism; Zardari let go of presidential powers for parliamentary supremacy.
In an age of strongmen who want to rule by decree, these two sons of struggle remind us that democracy is not about winning at all costs. It is about making sure the system outlives you.
