Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of Benazir Bhutto and leading contender to be President of Pakistan, was suffering from crippling psychiatric illnesses as recently as last year.

Mr Zardari, who chairs the Pakistan People’s Party jointly with his son Bilal, 19, experienced dementia, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The illnesses, diagnosed by two New York psychiatrists, were detailed in court documents used by Mr Zardari to delay attempts by the Pakistani Government to sue him for corruption in the English High Court.

They were said to stem from the trauma of 11 years spent in Pakistani prisons fighting corruption charges, when he says he was tortured.

In March 2007 Dr Philip Saltiel wrote that the detention had left Mr Zardari with severe “emotional instability, memory loss and concentration problems”, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.

“I do not see any improvement in these issues for at least a year,” he wrote. Dr Ste-phen Reich said that Mr Zardari was unable to recall the birthdays of his wife and children, was persistently apprehensive and had thought about suicide.

Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK and a long-time friend, said Mr Zardari had made a full recovery and sailed through recent medical tests.

Times Recommends

• UN may halt 400-year-old 'freedom of the seas'
• Where the Rosetta belongs can’t be set in stone
• Gas deal on hold, but Ukraine may pay in the end