Bhutto’s widower elected president of Pakistan

Asif Ali Zardari will become the most powerful civilian president of his country’s 61 years.

McClatchy Newspapers

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Asif Ali Zardari, the controversial widower of slain Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto once plagued by corruption charges, was elected president of Pakistan on Saturday and now must lead his troubled country out of the deepest crisis it has faced in years.

Zardari, 53, who overwhelmingly won the election in the country’s parliament and provincial assemblies, will succeed former President Pervez Musharraf, who resigned almost three weeks ago after Zardari pressed to impeach him.

Musharraf, the former army chief who seized power in a 1999 bloodless coup, was a key U.S. ally in the fight against militants. Zardari and his Pakistan People’s Party have been eager to show that their coalition government elected in February is a better choice to fight terrorism. In a statement, Zardari said the party had fulfilled Bhutto’s dream by retrieving the presidency from a dictator.

“It is the end of dictatorship,” said Rehman Malik, the Interior Ministry chief, after Zardari won. “There is no army, there is civilian rule.”

Zardari will become the most powerful civilian president in his country’s 61 years, dominated by military rulers. He inherits a nuclear-armed country considered crucial to the world’s security but that in recent months has been hit by crisis after crisis, from food inflation to a currency that fell to its lowest level ever against the dollar.

His government will face tremendous pressure from both the U.S. and the Pakistani people in the war on terror. Zardari is considered pro-West, but it is not clear how much control his government will be able to exert over the military, the strongest institution in Pakistan.

The government faces a tough balancing act, illustrated by the cross-border ground attack by U.S. forces Wednesday that Pakistani officials say killed 15 civilians in the tribal areas. The attack was universally condemned in Pakistan; in reaction, on Saturday, the government suspended all supplies through a key border checkpoint to NATO-led troops in Afghanistan, the defense minister announced.

NATO officials said this would have no effect on operations. It was not clear whether this was temporary, designed to win more votes for Zardari from tribal politicians.

Underscoring the challenges faced by Pakistan, the Taliban claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing Saturday near Peshawar that killed at least 17 people.

Despite his overwhelming victory, Zardari is a divisive figure in Pakistan, largely because of allegations that he was corrupt during his wife’s two terms as prime minister. He spent almost 11 years in jail but was never convicted and cleared of all charges.

With his election, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)and its ruling coalition now control the government and will have no excuse for failing to tackle the country’s significant problems, analysts said.

The PPP holds the positions of president, prime minister and a plurality of seats in the lower house of parliament. Their ruling coalition controls three out of four provincial assemblies. Zardari will both lead the party and be president, raising concerns he may hold too much power.

PPP leaders have said that Zardari may step down as leader of the party, and the parliament will begin considering whether to strip away powers Musharraf added to the presidency. Many analysts said legislators will probably remove the president’s ability to disband parliament but will still allow the president to serve as the supreme commander of the armed forces with the ability to appoint and fire top military chiefs.

Zardari won 481 out of 702 votes in the electoral college. The head of the party that once backed Musharraf won 43 votes; and a former chief justice nominated by the party that just quit the ruling coalition won 153 votes, according to unofficial results, which are expected to be made official soon. The remaining votes were invalid or blank.