Asif Ali Zardari

On a day of delirious public celebrations over Pakistan's popular chief justice getting his job back, President Asif Ali Zardari stayed conspicuously out of sight. The 52-year-old president, whose popularity had been flagging even before Pakistan's latest political crisis, was like an unwelcome guest Monday at a raucous nationwide party, pilloried for his heavy-handed treatment of activists who championed the cause of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry.

Re "After Bhutto," editorial, Jan. 2 The Times editorial urges free and fair elections in Pakistan. How soon we forget. Democratic elections do not guarantee a peaceful nation. There appear to be nations that are only held together by a dictatorial strongman or which choose leaders bent on aggression against their neighbors. We removed Saddam Hussein, sponsored free and fair elections and produced a nation torn apart by sectarian conflict and a government in paralysis. Free and fair elections in the Palestinian territories brought a terrorist organization to power.

A memoir and policy book by former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, finished only a week before her assassination, will be published Feb. 12 by HarperCollins. The publication of "Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West" has "the full support of her family and advisers," according to a statement issued Monday by HarperCollins. "No one could have known that these would be Benazir Bhutto's final words, and somehow that makes them carry even more weight, especially at a time like this," said HarperCollins Executive Editor Tim Duggan.

A court dropped graft cases against the husband of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. The ruling in favor of Asif Ali Zardari in an anti-corruption court will anger some ordinary Pakistanis but may smooth the way for a new administration to take office and begin tackling urgent issues, including Islamic extremism. Bhutto's party came in first in last month's parliamentary elections, routing supporters of President Pervez Musharraf. The anti-corruption court in Rawalpindi, acting under an order issued by Musharraf last year, instructed prosecutors to terminate five long-standing cases against Zardari.

Pakistan's parliamentary election winners agreed to form a coalition government Sunday and promised that they would restore senior judges fired last year by President Pervez Musharraf as he sought to secure his continued rule. Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whose government was ousted in 1999 in a coup led by Musharraf, announced their pact after talks at a resort town in the foothills of the Himalayas.

A court quashed Pakistan's last outstanding charge against the husband of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, clearing the way for him to lead her party in a new coalition government. There is speculation that Asif Ali Zardari may seek to become prime minister; anyone convicted of a crime is barred from holding office. A judge in Rawalpindi acquitted Zardari in a case involving the importation of a German limousine. Six other corruption cases against Zardari dating from his wife's time in office in the 1990s had already been dismissed.

A new parliament dominated by foes of President Pervez Musharraf was inaugurated Monday, ushering in what is likely to be a concerted effort to curtail the near-total powers of the Pakistani leader. The buoyant atmosphere, however, was dimmed by signs of potential disarray within the newly ascendant coalition formed by the two main opposition parties after they swept last month's parliamentary elections. The party of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, which won the largest share of seats, has yet to put forth a candidate for prime minister.

Pakistan's election commission postponed by two months polling for legislative seats that had been due in June, drawing protests from governing parties, whose leaders were mulling runs for parliament. The commission said it was responding to a busy calendar and security concerns. A spokesman for President Pervez Musharraf rejected a claim that he was behind the delay. Anti-Musharraf parties swept the general elections in February. But voting in some areas was voided or delayed. Asif Ali Zardari, widower of Benazir Bhutto, has said he may stand for the seat that Bhutto had hoped to contest.

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.

Acting in accordance with her last wishes, Benazir Bhutto's party Sunday named her 19-year-old son as its ceremonial leader and her widowed husband as the executor of its day-to-day affairs as violence that had flared in Pakistan after her assassination subsided.