Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari is a survivor

He spent 11 years in jail on what he says are trumped up political charges, benefitted from a controversial amnesty deal between his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, and Pakistan's military president Pervez Musharraf and landed in the president's office himself after Bhutto's 2007 assassination. Since then, however, his government has constantly butted heads with the judiciary over old corruption charges, and on October 13, Pakistan's Supreme Court will convene and possibly order the reopening of money-laundering cases in Switzerland despite his presidential immunity. Here are some questions and answers about this critical moment in Pakistan's politics. HAS ZARDARI BECOME A LIABILITY FOR THE PPP? By most accounts, yes. He has never achieved the popularity of his late wife and has lived under a cloud of suspicion that he benefitted financially from her tenure as prime minister. "The problem is he's not an asset for the party but if he's removed, there's no person on which the party will be able to agree. I don't see any obvious choice," said Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, executive director of the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (PILDAT). PPP officials, however, deny any political weakness and point to his continued tenure in office as proof of his popularity and ability to head the party. "When workers feel their party under threat ... they will never go against the party but support it even if they don't like Zardari," said Hassan Askari Rizvi, a political analyst. COULD HE BE REMOVED IF THE COURT MOVES AGAINST HIM? Not easily. Pakistan's constitution provides for immunity from criminal prosecution for the president as head of state. But the current dispute over the Swiss cases go back before he was in office, and it's possible the Supreme Court could interpret the immunity clause strictly and strip him of its protection. Rizvi said the immunity clause is crystal clear, however, and re-interpreting it would be tantamount to "re-writing the constitution." Party members and analysts agree that were the Supreme Court to begin moves to strip his immunity, Pakistan's powerful military would likely work behind the scenes to stave off a confrontation that could destabilize the country.