Bhutto's Widower Is New Pakistani President

Opposition leader Asif Ali Zardari, head of the Pakistan People's Party since his wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated last year, succeeded Pervez Musharraf as president on Saturday with a little more than two-thirds of the vote in parliament. Dawn has a good story with a "what now?" angle:

"...Political sources said the presidency, which is now the most powerful political office in the country, would hardly be a comfortable crown for Mr Zardari whose credibility plummeted in recent months after he failed to honour three deadlines he agreed with PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif for restoration of the judges.

He will have to rectify this situation, for which he now has the needed presidential powers and the parliamentary majority for any constitutional amendment to which the PML-N too will an eager party.

Then there will be the question of the PPP-PML-N commitment to a Charter of Democracy that both Ms Bhutto and Mr Sharif had signed in London in 2006 whose implementation will mean clipping the presidency of its controversial powers such as to dissolve the National Assembly, sack a prime minister and appoint armed forces’ chiefs and the chief election commissioner and to give them back to the prime minister as originally envisioned by the 1973 Constitution.

Many political observers doubt Mr Zardari will like to part with all of these powers, which were first introduced by decree by longest serving military ruler General Mohammad Ziaul Haq (1977-88), but were given back to the prime minister through a constitutional amendment under Mr Sharif’s second government, and assumed again by former president Musharraf."

Sharif faces myriad challenges that can't be vanquished with Bhutto's legacy alone: terrorism, economic woes, and, fittingly, a general lack of faith in the country's leaders among ordinary Pakistanis.

(Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)