Zardari Re-emerges, but Effect on Pakistan Is Unclear
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: January 20, 2010
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — For the first time in months, President Asif Ali Zardari is doing what presidents normally do — giving rousing speeches, traveling around the country and asserting himself publicly as the country’s chief official.
This is unusual behavior for a leader who rarely left the presidential palace, except to travel abroad, and hunkered down in silence under a barrage of media criticism for months last year, leading many to conclude that he was losing his grip on power. “The doomsday scenario has not come to pass,” said Cyril Almeida, a columnist for Dawn, an English-language daily newspaper.
It now seems more likely that Mr. Zardari will survive in power. But he remains a weak, unpopular leader, leaving the larger question for Pakistan unchanged: When will its elected leaders be capable of solving the vast assortment of crushing economic, security and social problems facing the country?
It is an urgent question, too, for the Obama administration, which is depending on cooperation from Pakistan, its prickly ally, to help carry out its new war strategy for neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistan’s western mountains are a sanctuary for militants, and the administration has been pressing Pakistan to do more to flush them out. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates will visit Pakistan on Thursday for that reason.
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