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Bhutto Widower Faces Challenges Leading Pakistan

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Los Angeles Times

Published: September 7, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The election of the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto to the presidency marked an emotional moment Saturday for the slain leader's supporters. But many Pakistanis wondered whether Asif Ali Zardari could successfully tackle the country's problems.

Zardari, 53, who spent 11 years in jail on corruption charges that remain unproved, succeeds Pervez Musharraf, who resigned last month under the threat of impeachment. Zardari is expected to be sworn in Monday or Tuesday, Pakistani officials said.

Zardari becomes president amid increasing evidence that the Pakistani government and military face almost overwhelming difficulties in battling militants, who now virtually control the tribal areas.

In a reminder of that challenge, a suicide bomber killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens at a police checkpoint near Peshawar on Saturday.

Zardari won 480 of the 702 electoral college votes cast, election officials said, citing an unofficial tally.

The new president will face a fast-deteriorating economy, a determined Islamic insurgency and an often-uneasy relationship with Washington.

Zardari, who married Bhutto in 1987 in an arranged union that shocked her friends, had said while she was alive that he had no interest in politics.

The former prime minister's contemporaries did not regard Zardari, the polo-playing scion of a wealthy landowning clan and a political novice, as her intellectual equal, and the two lived apart for the last years of her life.

But he became the leader of the Pakistan People's Party when she was assassinated in December 2007, and after leading the party to victory in parliamentary elections just six weeks later, Zardari made it clear that he wanted more than a ceremonial role.

Zardari formed a coalition with Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-N, after the parliamentary elections. But that coalition collapsed last month.

ZARDARI'S CHALLENGES

MILITANTS: The government must respond to Western pressure to clamp down on Taliban and al-Qaida guerrillas attacking targets in Pakistan and Afghanistan without provoking a tribal uprising or alienating a public skeptical of the Pakistani role in Washington's war on terrorism.

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS: Pakistan needs donors to top up its foreign currency reserves and prevent a run on the rupee.

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION: There likely will be calls for the release of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist blamed for passing nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, and questions about whether Khan knows more about secret atom bomb projects in other countries.

DEMOCRACY: Zardari will be under pressure to resign as leader of his political party and return powers to Parliament. Doubts remain about the independence of the judiciary purged by Pervez Musharraf.

STAYING ALIVE: Zardari has moved into the prime minister's residence because of concerns for his safety, and because his wife, Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated in December.

Source: The Associated Press

Information from The New York Times was used in this report.

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