Zardari's crisis leadership questioned

Islamabad: A year ago, Asif Ali Zardari was a political footnote. He was best known as the corruption-tainted, polo-loving husband of Benazir Bhutto, the charismatic former Pakistani prime minister who appeared poised to make a dramatic return to power.

Now Zardari, who took over leadership of Bhutto's party after she was assassinated in December 27 and became president three months ago, finds himself head of state at a time of extraordinary turmoil, even by Pakistani standards.

Stung by Indian accusations that Pakistani militants played a leading role in last month's terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, the country has responded with an outpouring of nationalistic sentiment.

For the moment, that sense of affront and grievance is uniting Pakistanis of all political persuasions, but many analysts believe it could eventually backfire on Zardari.

A tough stance

To please a domestic audience, the 53-year-old president has taken a tough stance toward India, refusing to hand over suspects sought by New Delhi and expressing scepticism that the attacks emanated from Pakistani soil, despite mounting evidence from Indian investigators and Western intelligence.

But at the same time, Zardari is under intense pressure from the United States, his main patron, to crack down on militant figures suspected of being behind the attacks, although that could provoke a violent backlash from insurgents and their supporters.

Pakistani cities and towns have already suffered a concerted campaign of suicide bombings at militants' hands.

Zardari was overwhelmingly elected president by Pakistani lawmakers in September, after leading his wife's political party to victory in parliamentary elections six weeks after her death.

The assassination brought a wave of sympathy for Zardari, who had long been derided as "Mr 10 percent" for kickbacks he allegedly demanded on government contracts when his wife was prime minister in the 1990s. But many Pakistanis, particularly among the country's educated elite, fear Zardari is simply not up to the task of governance.

"Naive is the word I would use," said Zafarullah Khan, director of the Centre for Civic Education in Islamabad. "He really became president only by accident."

Since the Mumbai crisis erupted, Zardari and his lieutenants have made a series of embarrassing missteps. During the siege, the Pakistani civilian government promised to send spy chief Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha to help with the investigation - only to be forced to rescind the pledge when the military would have none of it. One of the country's premier newspapers, Dawn, reported that Zardari's aides were also tricked about the identity of a caller they believed to be India's foreign minister, Pranab Mukherjee.

When the caller made threats of military action to Zardari, Pakistan's air force spent nearly 24 hours in a state of highest alert before it was ascertained that Mukherjee had not been the person on the line.

Even if the India crisis defuses, Zardari is facing what could become a massive wave of discontent in his country.