Is Pakistan's new president up to the job?

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN — Only a year ago, Asif Ali Zardari was best known as the husband of Benazir Bhutto, a highflying businessman with a taste for fine living, polo and, his critics allege, bribes. He was a man who spent 11 years in jail while awaiting trial on unproven corruption charges, the stress of which, according to court papers filed by doctors last year and viewed by a British newspaper, induced bouts of dementia and depression.

Today, Zardari is the leader of this nuclear-armed country, a nation crucial to the security of the United States but one beset by an internal crisis whose outcome could, some say, determine whether Pakistan stands or falls as a modern Muslim state.

Just three weeks into his presidency, Zardari is facing an unprecedented challenge from Islamic extremists, who blew up the Marriott Hotel here in the Pakistani capital in a brazen suicide attack that killed at least 53 people. He is now under enormous pressure to improve security for his people and rescue a flailing economy.

Most delicate of all, he must find a way to cooperate with Washington in its war on Islamic militants without seeming to be bossed around by it or, worse, ignored as U.S. troops based in Afghanistan increasingly make forays against insurgents on Pakistani soil.

Whether Zardari is up to such a difficult task is a question on the minds of many of his compatriots, who wonder whether he has the charisma, clout and capability to rise above party politics and his personal interests for the sake of the nation.

Few Pakistanis can forget that Zardari, 53, is an accidental president, thrust onto center stage after Bhutto, a former prime minister, was assassinated in December by extremists. Zardari took the helm of his wife's Pakistan People's Party, which emerged as the biggest winner at the polls in February, and was elected president by lawmakers this month after the resignation of Pervez Musharraf.

From the beginning, Zardari pledged to unite the country and to bring back the rule of law, including the reseating of a number of judges sacked by Musharraf in an apparent bid to stay in power.

But Zardari has so far failed to deliver fully on those promises, leaving lawmakers divided and hostile at a time when unity is needed more than ever as Pakistan struggles to contain the burgeoning threat of Islamic militancy within its borders.

U.S. looms large