Pakistani Woman Faces Assault Charges
U.S.-Educated Scientist Accused of Attacking American Troops, Agents in Afghanistan

By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 6, 2008



A U.S.-educated Pakistani woman suspected of links to al-Qaeda appeared in federal court in New York yesterday on charges of attempting to kill American military officers and FBI agents in Afghanistan last month.

Aafia Siddiqui, 36, a neuroscientist with degrees from MIT and Brandeis University, was flown to New York on Monday, a little more than two weeks after she was shot and wounded while allegedly trying to open fire on a group of Americans who had come to question her in a police station in Afghanistan's Ghazni province.

An FBI criminal complaint unsealed Monday described a chaotic scene at the police station in which Siddiqui, who had been arrested by Afghan police, managed to grab a U.S. soldier's rifle and fire two errant shots as an interpreter tried to wrestle the weapon away from her. The soldier returned fire with a pistol and hit her at least once in the upper body, the complaint said.

A lawyer for Siddiqui, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, disputed the government's account. She told reporters that Siddiqui is "not a terrorist" and has done nothing wrong. Siddiqui's family has charged that U.S. authorities secretly detained her in Afghanistan after she disappeared in Pakistan in March 2003 with her three children. The U.S. government says it was not holding Siddiqui and had no knowledge of her whereabouts for the past five years until she was arrested in Ghazni.

Siddiqui made her initial appearance yesterday before a federal magistrate judge in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and was detained. A bail hearing was set for Monday.

The FBI said in March 2003 that it wanted to question Siddiqui about possible connections to terrorism, including ties to Adnan G. el Shukrijumah, a suspected al-Qaeda member who was born in Saudi Arabia and once lived in suburban Miami. Siddiqui's name reportedly came up during interrogations of Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, after he was captured in Pakistan on March 1, 2003.

In 2004, the FBI described Siddiqui as "an al-Qaeda operative and facilitator" who was among seven people being sought in connection with potential terrorist attacks in the United States. American intelligence also said Siddiqui worked with an al-Qaeda operative known as Ammar al-Baluchi and married him shortly before he was arrested in Pakistan in late April 2003. Baluchi, a nephew of Mohammed, is being held at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

According to the FBI complaint, Siddiqui and a teenage boy were picked up by Afghan national police outside the Ghazni governor's compound on the evening of July 17. Officers regarded her as suspicious, and they "searched her handbag and found numerous documents describing the creation of explosives, chemical weapons, and other weapons involving biological material and radiological agents," the complaint said. Also found among Siddiqui's belongings, it said, were "descriptions of various landmarks in the United States, including in New York City," documents detailing U.S. "military assets" and excerpts from "The Anarchist Arsenal," a bombmaking manual.

"Siddiqui was also in possession of numerous chemical substances in gel and liquid form that were sealed in bottles and glass jars," the complaint said. It did not say where these were found.

The next day, a U.S. Army captain and a warrant officer, two FBI agents and at least two interpreters went to the Afghan facility where Siddiqui was being held. They were brought to a second-floor meeting room that was divided by a curtain. The U.S. personnel were not told that Siddiqui was being held, unsecured, behind the curtain, the complaint said. It described the following sequence of events:

The warrant officer sat down and put his M4 rifle on the floor next to the curtain. The captain then heard a woman yell in English and saw Siddiqui holding the rifle and pointing it at him. One of the interpreters, who was not otherwise identified, lunged at Siddiqui and pushed the rifle away as she pulled the trigger, firing two shots. In the struggle, Siddiqui was heard shouting "God is great!" in Arabic and "Get the [expletive] out of here!" in English. The warrant officer drew his 9mm service pistol and shot her.

"Despite being shot, Siddiqui struggled with the officers when they tried to subdue her; she struck and kicked them while shouting in English that she wanted to kill Americans," the complaint said.

Afghan officials gave different accounts of the incident, which some said involved a dispute with the Americans over child custody.

One Afghan official in Ghazni said the boy arrested with Siddiqui was her 12-year-old son. The official said that the Americans left the boy at the police station and that he was subsequently sent to the Interior Ministry in Kabul.

Siddiqui is charged with one count of attempting to kill U.S. personnel and one count of assault. If convicted, she would face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on each charge, the Justice Department said.

The slight Pakistani woman graduated from MIT in 1995 with a degree in biology and went on to receive a doctorate in neuroscience from Brandeis in 2001. While living in the Boston area, she and her then-husband, a Pakistani doctor, founded the nonprofit Institute of Islamic Research and Teaching and contributed to Islamic charities that U.S. officials have described as front groups for extremists.

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Pakistani President Expected to Resign

Musharraf, Facing Impeachment, Likely To Step Down Within Days, Officials Say

By Candace Rondeaux and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, August 15, 2008.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 14 -- Faced with mounting pressure from former political allies and dwindling support from his international backers, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, once a top U.S. ally, is expected to resign in the next few days, according to Pakistani officials.

A week after leaders of the ruling coalition said they planned to impeach Musharraf, the capital was abuzz with speculation that he would step down before formal impeachment charges are filed in Parliament on Monday. Musharraf, who seized power in a military coup nine years ago, has survived at least two assassination attempts. But his opponents said Thursday that he was unlikely to withstand the current challenge to his presidency.

Musharraf has said he has no plans to leave Pakistan, although some analysts and political associates have suggested he could take up residence in Turkey, where he spent several years of his childhood. One senior Pakistani official said Musharraf's opening position in preliminary talks about his future was a demand for "indemnity and immunity" from prosecution.

"He has indicated he is not a rich man and can't live abroad," the official said.

Musharraf's possible departure has raised fears that it could further destabilize Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation, and hamper the multibillion-dollar U.S. effort to fight al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in the region. In the event of Musharraf's ouster, the chairman of the 100-seat Senate would become the de facto head of state, and Parliament would have 30 days to take up a vote for the president's replacement.

Bush administration officials said they believed Musharraf had maintained hopes until late last week that some senior commanders of Pakistan's powerful military would support his continuation in office. Rumors briefly spread through the administration that Musharraf, who rose to power through the military before seizing control in a 1999 coup, was trying to organize a return to non-democratic emergency rule.


But the senior Pakistani official said that "the head count is over" and that army corps commanders had informed the government in Islamabad last Friday that they had no desire to be involved. Pakistan's newly appointed chief of army staff, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, has remained aloof from the impeachment debate while dozens of retired military officers have called publicly for Musharraf's removal.

Still unknown is whether Musharraf will reach out to the White House and seek to revive his once-close relationship with President Bush. U.S. officials said there had been no high-level contact with Musharraf for some time. They said that Bush's top national security advisers had counseled him "not to take the call" if Musharraf telephoned but that Bush had not yet communicated a decision on the matter.

Farah Ispahani, a top member of the Pakistan People's Party, part of the ruling coalition, said Musharraf is expected to resign within two to three days. Ispahani, a member of Parliament and the wife of Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, said that details of Musharraf's resignation plan remain under negotiation but that it was clear his support was shrinking rapidly.

"We hope that in the interest of the good of Pakistan, and for the good of the country, that Mr. Musharraf takes the right course and resigns before the impeachment process begins," Ispahani said.

The senior Pakistani official, who said he was not authorized to discuss the issue publicly, said a game of "psychological warfare" was underway between Pakistani politicians and Musharraf's backers. "The truth is that he will resign," the official said, but "official action has to be taken by him, and he has not yet taken the action."

Dozens of members of Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League-Q abandoned him this week after three provincial assemblies voted overwhelmingly in favor of his impeachment. On Friday, the provincial assembly in the southern province of Baluchistan is expected to deliver a similar vote, according to Pakistani politicians and analysts.

Leaders of the ruling coalition, which also includes former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-N party, called for Musharraf's impeachment Aug. 7. The coalition has at times appeared on the brink of collapse since the two parties swept Parliamentary elections in February. But last week, Sharif and the co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party, Asif Ali Zardari, presented a united front in calling for the president to step down.

A two-thirds majority in both the National Assembly and the Senate are required to oust Musharraf from office.

Although the United States imposed sanctions on Pakistan after Musharraf overthrew Sharif in 1999, the Bush administration became a vocal backer of his government when he declared allegiance to Washington following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. His government has provided unprecedented U.S. access to Pakistani territory, including operational support to fight an Islamist insurgency that has spread from Afghanistan to Pakistan's remote tribal areas along the 1,500-mile-long Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

But while the administration supported Pakistan's return to democracy this spring, it was reluctant to sever ties with Musharraf, who remained president. Concerns over the coalition government's determination to continue the counterterrorism fight have increased measurably in recent weeks. U.S. officials have charged that Pakistan's powerful intelligence agencies -- long under military control -- have been aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan, and that the government lacks the ability, and perhaps the desire, to control them.

The coalition reached its decision to impeach Musharraf only days after Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani visited the White House and weeks after a top CIA official confronted Pakistan's civilian government with evidence that the country's Inter-Services Intelligence agency had helped coordinate a deadly suicide bombing in Afghanistan last month.

The White House is thought to be split on how strongly to back Musharraf, especially since the call for his impeachment. But while Vice President Cheney is often cited as Musharraf's principal backer in Washington, officials there said that Cheney now agrees that the president should be cut off. They said that it was Bush who had not committed to a final break with someone he still considers a counterterrorism ally.

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Divisions emerge in Pakistan's ruling coalition

By ZARAR KHAN
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 19, 2008.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Just a day after Pervez Musharraf's resignation, Pakistan's governing coalition fell into wrangling Tuesday over restoring the judges he fired, exposing troublesome divisions that could disrupt picking his successor as president.

Pakistanis have been urging the government to set aside political bickering and tackle extremist violence and economic downturn _ challenges underscored Tuesday by a bombing outside a hospital and new battles between the army and militants.

But, as it has for months, the issue of judges revealed itself as a severe strain in the alliance between the two main parties that won February parliamentary elections after running against Musharraf.

The one-time military ruler was believed to be in his army-guarded residence near the capital, Islamabad. Analysts speculated Musharraf wants guarantees against criminal prosecution or forced exile, but Law Minister Farooq Naek said "no deal" had been reached.

The U.S.-backed leader reluctantly ended his nine-year presidency Monday in the face of the ruling coalition's move to impeach him in Parliament.

With the constitution requiring the election of a new president by Parliament within 30 days, the governing parties must quickly agree on a replacement or risk a damaging power struggle.

But the sharp disagreement over how to reinstate Supreme Court justices removed by Musharraf last year raised questions about the coalition's stability.

Musharraf purged the court in an attempt to avoid legal challenges to his rule, but the maneuver only deepened his unpopularity, propelling his rivals to victory in the elections.

It also turned the judges into controversial political players. The ruling coalition was founded on a pledge to restore the justices quickly. But while former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has pushed hard to get them back on the bench, the leader of the coalition's biggest bloc, Asif Ali Zardari, has stalled their restoration.

After a four-hour meeting with Zardari on Tuesday, Sharif and his senior party lieutenants abruptly walked out, jumping into a convoy of cars without announcing any progress.

Ahsan Iqbal, a senior member of Sharif's party, said he was hopeful an agreement was days away, saying Pakistan could not afford the breakup of the alliance.

"It's not an option for any coalition partner to default on the understanding and agreement we have made, not only among ourselves but to the nation," he said.

However, Farahnaz Ispahani of Zardari's Pakistan Peoples Party said only that it hoped to "be further along with this conversation" by Friday and that two smaller parties in the alliance also had to be on board.

"We will do it in a way we did with Musharraf. Everyone will be in agreement," she said, pleading for patience from the public.

The issue is fraught with political calculations. The former Supreme Court supported efforts by Sharif, whose government was ousted in Musharraf's 1999 takeover, to return from exile last year.

But the justices also had agreed to hear challenges to a presidential order that killed corruption cases against Zardari and his since-assassinated wife, former premier Benazir Bhutto. The order was part of Musharraf's failed effort to form a pro-Western power-sharing deal with Bhutto.

In addition, the coalition must keep in mind the nation's lawyers, whose protests in support of the justices played a major role in eroding Musharraf's popularity.

The political squabbling comes amid deep uncertainty in Pakistan. Many people fear it is distracting the government from dealing with the threat of pro-Taliban militants along the border with Afghanistan.

On Tuesday, police said security forces backed by helicopter gunships and artillery pounded insurgents in the border area of Bajur, killing 11 suspected extremists and five civilians. A separate battle at a fort in the same region killed 13 militants and five soldiers, officials said.


Meanwhile, a suicide bomb attack killed 26 people and wounded 35 outside a hospital crowded with Shiite Muslims. The Taliban, a predominantly Sunni movement, claimed responsibility for the explosion at Dera Ismail Khan District Hospital.

Pakistan is also gripped by economic problems, including soaring prices, high joblessness and chronic electricity shortages.

With the ruling coalition expected to strip the presidency of much of its power, Pakistanis are putting the responsibility for righting the country's course on the new government.

"Price hikes, unemployment, law and order, justice," said Tariq Javed, a lawyer from Lahore, listing the problems that need to be addressed quickly.

Javed, who spent 10 days in prison in November after taking part in a rally demanding the restoration of judges, said the parties must put aside their differences.

Momin Khan, a grocer in Karachi, isn't optimistic. He expects that without Musharraf as a lightning rod, divisiveness will weaken the coalition _ whose main parties fought bitterly over power in the decade before the 1999 coup.

"They'll find another fake issue to focus on. And then another," Khan said. "Politicians use the poor when it's convenient, to chant slogans, but really it's all about power."

In dealing with Musharraf, Sharif seems bent on revenge, calling for the former leader to be tried for treason for imposing emergency rule and ousting the judges _ a charge punishable by death.

"He should not be allowed to leave," said Sadiqul Farooq, a spokesman for Sharif. "He should be tried for his crimes."

Replacement judges sworn in during the emergency granted Musharraf legal protections which, experts say, could be reversed with the help of restored judges.

Musharraf's supporters say he wants to stay in Pakistan despite concern that Islamic militants could try again to assassinate him for joining the U.S.-led war on terrorist groups. However, many observers predict he will seek to leave at least temporarily to let the furor die down.

On Tuesday, an aide to Musharraf said he planned to travel to Saudi Arabia on a religious pilgrimage and then return. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not Musharraf's official spokesman.

He said Musharraf also wanted to visit his brother, who lives in the United States. State Department spokesman Robert Wood told reporters that if Musharraf were to ask for residence in the U.S., officials would consider the request.


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Musharraf's exit poses challenge for Pakistan

By STEPHEN GRAHAM
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 19, 2008.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pervez Musharraf resigned Monday as the president of Pakistan, avoiding a power struggle with rivals vowing to impeach him that would have deepened the country's political crisis. His exit, announced in an emotional televised address, leaves the politicians who pushed out the stalwart U.S. ally to face the Islamic militants and economic problems gnawing at this nuclear-armed nation.

"There is a huge challenge ahead," said Shafqat Mahmood, a former government minister and prominent political analyst. "Now this whole Musharraf excuse is behind us. Now people are going to be focusing on their performance."

Musharraf's departure after nearly nine divisive years in power was widely expected after months of rising pressure for him to leave, culminating in the threat to bring impeachment charges to Parliament this week. A diminished figure since he resigned as army chief in November and found himself cut out of policymaking by the civilian government, the 65-year-old former general left the presidency amid a palpable lack of overt support from either of his main props _ the army and Washington.

Underlining how the West has already moved on, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered "deep gratitude" for Musharraf's decision to join the U.S.-led fight against extremists following the Sept. 11 attacks, saying he "served as a good ally of the United States."

But she was careful to signal strong support for the civilian government that pushed him aside. "We believe that respect for the democratic and constitutional processes in that country is fundamental to Pakistan's future and its fight against terrorism," Rice said.

Still, Musharraf's demise throws up a string of critical questions, including whether the ruling coalition will hold together without its common foe and whether the main parties will maintain Musharraf's close alliance with the U.S.

Musharraf's departure is unlikely to have a significant impact on how Pakistan's nuclear weapons are controlled, however. Experts say a 10-member committee, and not just the president, makes decisions on how to use them.

In an hour-long address devoted largely to defending his record, Musharraf listed the many problems now facing Pakistan, including its sinking economy and a chronic power shortage, and suggested his opponents were targeting him to mask their own failings.

"I am going with the satisfaction that whatever I have done was for the people and for the country ... I hope the nation and the people will forgive my mistakes," he said.

In cities across Pakistan, crowds gathered to celebrate, some firing automatic weapons into the sky. "It is very pleasing to know that Musharraf is no more," said Mohammed Saeed, a shopkeeper in a crowd of people dancing to drum beats and hugging each other at an intersection in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

"He even tried to deceive the nation in his last address. He was boasting about economic progress when life for people like us has become a hell," he said, because of problems that include runaway inflation.

But many revelers were already thinking to the future. "The government had been blaming Musharraf for inflation, power cuts and the weak economy, and since now he has resigned, we hope that the government will take steps to make our life better," said Asma Bibi, a housewife in the central city of Multan.

The government said Musharraf's retreat was a victory for democracy over dictatorship _ Pakistan has spent about half its 61-year history under military rule.

"His resignation clears the way for our government to get on with ... providing to the people of Pakistan basic social services, economic opportunities, political security and law and order," Information Minister Sherry Rehman said.

Pakistan's stock market and currency both rose strongly on hopes the country was bound for political stability. However, analysts say the coalition must quickly clear two more political hurdles in order to survive: elect a new president and resolve the country's judicial crisis.

Senate Chairman Mohammedmian Soomro became acting president after the National Assembly speaker accepted Musharraf's resignation Monday night, said Farhatullah Babar, spokesman for the Pakistan People's Party. But Soomro is viewed as a Musharraf loyalist with no chance of keeping the job.

The coalition's leaders will meet Tuesday to discuss a successor, Babar said.
According to the constitution, parliament must elect a new president within 30 days. There has been speculation that both Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, the leaders of the two main parties, are interested in the role. However, neither has openly said so and both have vowed to strip the post of much of its power.

The coalition also faces huge pressure from public opinion and lawyers who have protested against Musharraf for more than a year to restore the Supreme Court judges ousted when Musharraf imposed emergency rule last year.

Those moves undercut Musharraf's already sinking popularity and helped propel his allies to defeat in February elections. The coalition that replaced them was founded on a pledge to restore the judges that has remained unfulfilled _ a reluctance many attribute to Zardari's concern the judges are too close to Sharif, who loudly championed their cause.

Law Minister Farooq Naek said Monday the "modalities" of how and when the judges will return were still open. Talat Masood, a former army general turned political analyst, forecast the coalition would find compromises for both the presidency and the judiciary, partly because neither wants to tackle the country's problems alone.

"It's a huge challenge and they cannot face it individually. It's very important for them to work together and I think they know that," he said.

However, Najam Sethi, editor of the Daily Times newspaper, forecast that wrangling in the coalition _ the two main parties fought bitterly for power in the 1990s, when both were stained by allegations of corruption _ will hamper policymaking. "America wants some immediate decisions (on fighting terrorism), and I don't think they will be able to concentrate on that," Sethi said. "On the other hand are the people of this country, the business community, and there, too, I don't see any new initiatives."

Another mystery unresolved Monday was Musharraf's own fate. Musharraf, then the army chief, seized power from Sharif in a 1999 coup. Sharif, who was jailed, sent into exile and only returned to Pakistan last year, has vowed to put Musharraf on trial for treason _ a crime punishable by death.

"The crimes of Musharraf against the nation, against the judiciary, against democracy and against rule of law in the country cannot be forgiven by any party or individual," Sharif's spokesman, Ahsan Iqbal, said Monday.

Supporters and foes had suggested that Musharraf was holding on for guarantees that he would not face criminal prosecution or be forced into exile.

"Musharraf would probably go away for a while," because of threats to his security _ he has survived several assassination attempts _ and to help defuse calls for criminal prosecution, Masood said.

"Whatever one might say, it may be difficult for the politicians to give him the indemnity," even if it has been promised, he said. Musharraf offered no details of his future plans in his address.

Most of the monologue was a feisty defense of his achievements _ keeping Pakistan out of the U.S. firing line after the 9/11 attacks, easing tension with archrival India and overseeing an economic boom that is only now starting to falter.

But as he turned to his present predicament, his brow grew more furrowed and the pauses between his sentences longer.

Before announcing his resignation to spare the nation from a power struggle that could have dragged the army back in to arbitrate, he complained that his opponents had snubbed his offers of reconciliation. "There were certain elements who were politicking with the economy and terrorism," he said.

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The Perils of Pakistan

Now that Mr. Musharraf is gone, perhaps the country's democrats can focus on governance.

PERVEZ MUSHARRAF stepped down as Pakistan's president Monday, brought down by a combination of his own dictatorial overreaching and the resistance of the parliamentary coalition that won elections six months ago. Having given up command of the country's army in November, Mr. Musharraf was already a far weaker figure than the brash general who seized power in a 1999 coup. A very real threat of impeachment prompted him to leave four years earlier than planned. Given Mr. Musharraf's repressive record in domestic politics and his inconsistent support for U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, his departure is for the best. Now, Pakistan's democratic politicians have what they wanted: full responsibility for governing this notoriously unstable, nuclear-armed nation of 167 million mostly poor people.

So far, however, the politicians have spent most of their energy on disputes left over from the Musharraf period. First among these is the question of what to do with Mr. Musharraf. One coalition partner, the Pakistan People's Party, which is headed by the late Benazir Bhutto's widower, Asif Ali Zardari, seems to favor allowing him a comfortable exile; the Pakistan Muslim League of Nawaz Sharif apparently wants him put on trial. This issue, in turn, is entwined with another struggle over how and when to reinstate the Supreme Court justices whom Mr. Musharraf purged, especially the former chief justice. Mr. Zardari dislikes the jurist because he once refused Mr. Zardari bail when he was jailed on corruption charges; Mr. Zardari fears that those charges might be revived.

All transitions from authoritarianism to democracy raise questions of retrospective accountability and justice. The fact that the Pakistani politicians wrestling with these questions are themselves hardly innocent of mistakes and abuses does not make the issues any less legitimate. Obviously it's up to the Pakistanis themselves to resolve Mr. Musharraf's fate and the future makeup of the Supreme Court. Pakistan's friends, including the United States, will have to show patience.

But Mr. Sharif and Mr. Zardari must simultaneously tackle the problems of Pakistan's present and future. Those include not only rising food and fuel prices but also the continuing cross-border Muslim insurgency linked to Afghanistan's Taliban. As a deadly Tuesday strike against French troops in Afghanistan and a foiled suicide bombing against U.S. troops the same day show, the West has a strong interest in defeating these guerrillas, and it cannot do so without Pakistan's help -- which Pakistan has promised. But the new Pakistani authorities have not yet demonstrated a convincing strategy for keeping that promise. Indeed, the Bush administration has confronted Pakistani leaders with evidence of links between Pakistan's military intelligence service and Islamist militants, including a behind-the-scenes role in a Taliban attack on India's embassy in Kabul in which 60 people were killed. Pakistan's new leaders swept to power on a claim that democracy is better at fighting terrorism than dictatorship. The sooner they start proving it, the better.

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Pakistan's next president: Mr. 10 Percent?

By ROBIN McDOWELL
The Associated Press
Thursday, August 28, 2008.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Asif Ali Zardari, the man poised to become Pakistan's next president, is still known as "Mr. 10 Percent" because of corruption allegations. Now his own lawyers say he may have suffered from mental health problems within the past year.

That has left many Pakistanis wondering: Is this the best man for the job?

"People have short memories, but not that short," said Rafat Saeed, 42, as he parked his car in the bustling city of Karachi following a week of political turmoil and relentless violence by Islamic militants.

"His name is synonymous with corruption!"

Friends and family say Zardari, widower of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is fine now and fit to rule. But the questions over his psychological state are not likely to go away soon.

The United States and other Western nations nervously watched the ruling coalition collapse this week after the two main parties forced Musharraf _ a close ally in the war on terrorism _ to resign as president rather than face impeachment.

Zardari's party is now in a position to dominate the 5-month-old civilian government, especially if the 53-year-old Zardari, recently cleared of all graft charges, is elected president by lawmakers in a Sept. 6 vote, as is widely expected.

If he wins, he will be one of the most powerful civilian leaders in Pakistan's 61-year history, retaining many of the powers accumulated during Musharraf's nine-year rule, from the right to dissolve Parliament to appointing heads of the armed forces.

But he has many demons in his past.

With $60 million in a Swiss bank account, corruption allegations dating to his wife's time in power will not go away any time soon. Then, in recent days, questions emerged about the state of Zardari's mental health.

In a corruption case brought against him by the Pakistani government, Zardari's own lawyers told a London court last year that he recently suffered from dementia and other psychological problems _ an apparent attempt to delay proceedings.

They claimed it was the result of years spent in Pakistani jails _ where Zardari says he was placed in solitary confinement, tortured and living in fear for his life before he was released in 2004. The claims of mental illness were first reported in the Financial Times.

Friends, family and party members insist, however, that he's healthy now and fit to rule.

"He was under stress, no doubt," said Wajid Hasan, Pakistan's ambassador in Britain and a longtime friend of Zardari's, adding that the diagnosis is now more than a year old.

"He was never prescribed drugs, he only received counseling," Hasan said. "I have spent long periods of time with him in the past two years ... He's been alert. He's been steady."

But his political rivals disagree.

"A 'patient' shouldn't be allowed to run for president," argued Sadiqul Farooq, spokesman for the party headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the junior party in the coalition that walked out this week.

Zardari, who earned the nickname "Mr. 10 Percent" while serving as minister for investment and environment when Bhutto was prime minister, was accused of pocketing commissions on contracts _ from Polish tractors to licenses to import gold.

He says the allegations were part of a smear campaign to keep Bhutto from returning from self-exile after her government collapsed in 1996.

Pakistani investigators accused them at one point of spiriting $1.5 billion out of the country.

Swiss prosecutor Daniel Zappelli said Thursday that some $60 million that had been in Swiss bank accounts since the 1990s would be unfrozen, following a request by Pakistani authorities.

He declined to identify the owner of the funds, citing privacy rules. But Hassan Habib at the Pakistani Embassy in Bern said he believed it belonged to "the late prime minister Bhutto, or her husband, or it was a joint account."

Among the skepticism, some in Pakistan are willing to cut Zardari some slack.

Imran Ibrahim, a 27-year-old stockbroker, notes that few Pakistani political leaders are squeaky clean, either using their position to line their own pockets or to help enrich family and friends.

"No one is free of flaws," Ibrahim said. "I think he's better than many of the others out there. Plus, he was the husband of Benazir Bhutto, who dreamed of a prosperous Pakistan. He'll live out her dream, or at least he'll try."

Bhutto was killed in a Dec. 27 attack as she was campaigning for parliamentary elections. Zardari immediately took the reins of her Pakistan People's Party, surprising many as he rallied supporters.

A former polo player from a wealthy landowning family, Zardari had shown little interest in politics, but quickly proved it wasn't due to lack of skill. By forming an unlikely alliance with Sharif, a bitter rival, they forced Musharraf from power.

The moment the former military ruler was gone, however, rifts in the coalition emerged.

Sharif accused Zardari of breaking promises to immediately restore judges ousted by Musharraf or to dramatically scale back the powers of the presidency.

Eventually, Sharif quit the coalition, saying his party would prefer to sit in the opposition.

Zardari's People's Party has begun forging new partnerships with smaller parties in Parliament, which could make it even more dominant.

Ishtiaq Ahmad, a professor of politics at Quaid-i-Azam University in Islamabad, said Zardari's widely perceived duplicity toward Sharif reawakened old doubts.

"He may be an expert in Darwinian politics, but people perceive a sheer lack of leadership qualities," said Ahmad.

The United States _ worried about a burgeoning Islamic militancy, especially in the volatile northwest, a rumored hiding place of Osama bin Laden _ hopes the country will remain an ally in the war on terror.

It saw the Oxford-educated Bhutto, an outspoken critic of Islamic extremists, as a potential ally and last year pushed for her rapprochement with Musharraf. The hope was that they could form a pro-Western alliance and galvanize the campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The negotiations paved the way for her return _ including an agreement by Musharraf to order the closing of long-standing corruption cases against the couple _ but later fell apart.

In March, Pakistani courts acquitted Zardari in the last case still pending against him, involving the import of a German luxury limousine. When the government told judicial authorities in Switzerland and Britain that no crime had been committed, the European courts had little choice but to end their proceedings.

Anti-American sentiment runs high in this Muslim country, largely over the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and many people worry Zardari is too close to Washington.

The 5-month-old civilian government dabbled in peace talks with the militants after taking power, something Musharraf briefly tried as well.

But it has increasingly relied on force to try to beat back insurgents. Officials say hundreds have been killed and more than 200,000 people forced to flee their homes in recent weeks.

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Pakistani Woman Indicted In N.Y.
Siddiqui Allegedly Attacked U.S. Team

By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 3, 2008

A federal grand jury yesterday indicted an American-trained behavioral scientist on charges that she tried to shoot and kill U.S. personnel in Afghanistan in July, when they prepared to question her as a terrorism suspect.

Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani national who lived in the United States for 12 years, faces a possible life sentence for allegedly grabbing a U.S. Army officer's M-4 rifle while she was detained, shooting at another Army officer and threatening all seven members of an Army and FBI interview team before she was shot and subdued.

She is scheduled to appear tomorrow in federal court in New York in connection with the seven felony counts, including attempted murder and assault.

Defense attorneys contend that Siddiqui, 36, was "disappeared" and imprisoned for an unspecified period before the shootout and has been set up by authorities.

"These are totally ludicrous claims," said one of the attorneys, Elizabeth Fink. "A woman gets in a cab, never to be seen again, and five years later, she shows up in Afghanistan and gets a gun away from the U.S. military. This stuff is from the Dark Side."

A CIA spokesman said yesterday that the agency had no knowledge of Siddiqui's whereabouts before her July arrest in Afghanistan's Ghazni province, and that she was not in U.S. custody before then.

Siddiqui, a longtime Boston resident who studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, vanished with her three children outside her parents' home in Karachi, Pakistan, in March 2003. At the time, U.S. officials were seeking to question her about suspected links to al-Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed.

Her disappearance has since become a cause celebre in Pakistan, where activists say the Pakistani government arrested and secretly detained her in 2003 at the behest of the United States.

Yesterday's indictment is based on events that U.S. officials allege occurred a day after Siddiqui and one of her children, an 11-year-old son, surfaced in Afghanistan and were arrested by local police. According to the indictment, Siddiqui was arrested July 17 carrying handwritten notes that referred to a "mass casualty attack" and contained the names of U.S. locations, including the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge. They said she also had notes describing the construction of bombs, explosives, and chemical and biological weapons.

Federal authorities are not pursuing in court the accusations they have leveled against Siddiqui in recent years. However, conviction on the attempted murder and firearm charges could put her in prison for life.

In 2004, the Justice Department said Siddiqui was an al-Qaeda "fixer" who helped terrorism suspects with travel documents and plots. She was of particular interest to the United States because she allegedly had married Mohammed's nephew, Ammar al-Baluchi, after a divorce from her first husband.

A biographical summary of terrorism suspects by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence described Siddiqui as part of a ring of "al-Qaeda operatives and facilitators," and said she helped another suspect, Majid Khan, with travel documents.

Khan is in custody in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.


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US confirms raid inside Pakistan

By PAUL ALEXANDER
The Associated Press
Thursday, September 4, 2008.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- American forces launched a raid inside Pakistan Wednesday, a senior U.S. military official said, in the first known U.S. ground assault in Pakistan against a suspected Taliban haven. The government condemned the attack, saying it killed at least 15 people.

The American official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of cross border operations, told The Associated Press that the raid occurred on Pakistani soil about one mile from the Afghan border. The official didn't provide any other details.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry protested saying U.S.-led troops flew in from Afghanistan for the attack on a village in the country's wild tribal belt. A Pakistan army spokesman warned that the apparent escalation from recent foreign missile strikes on militant targets along the Afghan border would further anger Pakistanis and undercut cooperation in the war against terrorist groups.

The boldness of the thrust fed speculation about the intended target. But it was unclear whether any extremist leader was killed or captured in the operation, which occurred in one of the militant strongholds dotting a frontier region considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida's No. 2 leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.

U.S. military and civilian officials declined to respond directly to Pakistan's complaints. But one official, a South Asia expert who agreed to discuss the situation only if not quoted by name, suggested the target of any raid like that reported Wednesday would have to be extremely important to risk an almost assured "big backlash" from Pakistan.

"You have to consider that something like this will be a more-or-less once-off opportunity for which we will have to pay a price in terms of Pakistani cooperation," the official said.

Suspected U.S. missile attacks killed at least two al-Qaida commanders this year in the same region, drawing protests from Pakistan's government that its sovereignty was under attack. U.S. officials did not acknowledge any involvement in those attacks.

But American commanders have been complaining publicly that Pakistan puts too little pressure on militant groups that are blamed for mounting violence in Afghanistan, stirring speculation that U.S. forces might lash out across the frontier.

Some administration officials have been pressing President Bush to direct U.S. troops in Afghanistan to be more aggressive in pursuing militants into Pakistan on foot as part of a proposed radical shift in regional counterterrorism strategy, the AP learned. The debate was the subject of a late July meeting at the White House of some of Bush's top national security advisers.

Circumstances surrounding Wednesday's raid weren't clear, but U.S. rules of engagement allow American troops to pursue militants across the border into Pakistan when they are attacked.

However, Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said hot pursuit wasn't an issue, adding that the attack "was completely unprovoked." He said Pakistani troops were near the village and saw and heard nothing to suggest the U.S. forces were pursuing insurgents.

The raid comes at a particularly sensitive time for the Pakistan government which is trying to overcome political divisions and choose a new president on the one hand, while the army is battling the militants on the other.

In other signs of Pakistan's precarious stability three days before legislators elect a successor to Pervez Musharraf as president, snipers shot at the prime minister's limousine near Islamabad and government troops killed two dozen militants in another area of the restive northwest.

Pakistani officials said they were lodging strong protests with the U.S. government and its military representative in Islamabad about Wednesday's raid in the South Waziristan area, a notorious hot bed of militant activity.

The Foreign Ministry called the strike "a gross violation of Pakistan's territory," saying it could "undermine the very basis of cooperation and may fuel the fire of hatred and violence that we are trying to extinguish."

Prior to the U.S. military confirming the U.S. raid, Pakistan government and military officials had insisted that either the NATO force or the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan _ both commanded by American generals _ were responsible. A spokesman for NATO troops in Afghanistan denied any involvement.

The army's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said the attack was the first incursion onto Pakistani soil by troops from the foreign forces that ousted Afghanistan's hard-line Taliban regime after the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S.

He said the attack would undermine Pakistan's efforts to isolate Islamic extremists and could threaten NATO's major supply lines, which snake from Pakistan's Indian Ocean port of Karachi through the tribal region into Afghanistan.

"We cannot afford a huge uprising at the level of tribe," Abbas said. "That would be completely counterproductive and doesn't help the cause of fighting terrorism in the area."

The Pakistani anger threatens to upset efforts by American commanders to draw Pakistan's military into the U.S. strategy of dealing harshly with the militants.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met last week with Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, the Pakistani army chief. Mullen said he came away encouraged that Pakistanis were becoming more focused on the problem of militants using the country as a safe haven.

However, Abbas, the army spokesman, said Wednesday that cross-border commando operations were not discussed and he reiterated Pakistan's position that its forces should be exclusively responsible for operations on its territory.

Pakistani officials say the U.S. and NATO should share intelligence and allow Pakistani troops to execute any raids needed inside Pakistan. However, Washington has accused rogue elements in Pakistan's main intelligence service of leaking sensitive information to militants.

American officials say destroying militant sanctuaries in Pakistani tribal regions is key to defeating Taliban-led militants in Afghanistan whose insurgency has strengthened every year since the fundamentalist militia was ousted for harboring bin Laden.

But there has been debate in Washington over how far the U.S. can go on its own.

Citing witness and intelligence reports, Abbas said troops flew in on at least one big CH-47 Chinook transport helicopter, blasted their way into several houses and gunned down men they found there.

He said there was no evidence that any of those killed were insurgents or that the raiders abducted any militant leader, but he acknowledged Pakistan's military had no firsthand account.

There were differing reports on how many people were killed. The provincial governor claimed 20 civilians, including women and children, died. Army and intelligence officials, as well as residents, said 15 people were killed.

Habib Khan Wazir, an area resident, said he heard helicopters, then an exchange of gunfire.

"Later, I saw 15 bodies inside and outside two homes. They had been shot in the head," Wazir said by phone. He claimed all the dead were civilians.

Near Islamabad, meanwhile, snipers fired at a motorcade near the capital as it headed to the airport to pick up the prime minister, hitting the window of his car at least twice, officials said. Neither Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani nor his staff were in the vehicles.

Muslim Khan, a spokesman for the banned militant organization Tahrik-e-Taliban, claimed responsibility and pledged more attacks in retaliation for army operations in tribal areas and the Swat Valley along the border with Afghanistan.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declined to comment on the claimed cross-border raid, but she said the U.S. would continue to work with Gilani's government.

"I am relieved, of course, that the incident aimed at the Pakistani prime minister did not succeed," Rice said.

"We're going to be in continued contact with the Pakistanis as we both try to help them to build a strong economic foundation, to build a strong democratic foundation and to fight the terrorists who are a threat not just to the United States and to Afghanistan but to Pakistan as well."

Associated Press writers Pamela Hess, Pauline Jelinek and Matthew Lee in Washington, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Munir Ahmad and Stephen Graham in Islamabad and Fisnik Abrashi in Kabul contributed to this report.

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By Asif Ali Zardari
Thursday, September 4, 2008.

Pakistan is at a crossroads. The gravity of the situation has led me, at the insistence of my Pakistan People's Party (PPP), to run for president in Saturday's elections. My children and I are still mourning our beloved leader, wife and mother, Benazir Bhutto. We did not make the decision for me to run lightly. But we know what is at stake. Chief among the challenges that all Pakistanis face is the threat of global terrorism, demonstrated again in this week's assassination attempt against Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani.

Returning Pakistan's presidency to democratic governance is a huge step in our country's transition from dictatorship to democracy. I want to help complete this process. I owe it to my party and my country but above all to my wife, who lost her life striving to make Pakistan free, pluralist and democratic.

Pakistani politics has always been a struggle between democratic forces around the country and an elite oligarchy, located exclusively in a region stretching between Lahore and Rawalpindi-Islamabad. The provinces of Sind, the Northwest Frontier (Pashtunkhwa) and Baluchistan, as well as all of rural Punjab, have often been excluded from governance.

The majority of Pakistan's people, across the expanse of our nation, have been ignored and even subjugated by Pakistan's establishment. This concentration of unchecked power has strained our government to the point of fracture. The PPP is the only party with support in all four provinces as well as in Kashmir and the federally administered tribal areas. The PPP's success in democratizing the presidency will strengthen Pakistan's viability as a nation.

Under Pakistan's constitution, the president was to be the head of state but not responsible for day-to-day governance. Two military dictators, Mohammed Zia ul-Haq and Pervez Musharraf, reconfigured the constitution to consolidate their power; they broadened the president's responsibilities to include the authority to sack democratically elected governments.

If I am elected president, one of my highest priorities will be to support the prime minister, the National Assembly and the Senate to amend the constitution to bring back into balance the powers of the presidency and thereby reduce its ability to bring down democratic governance.

It is essential that our nation's independent judiciary be reconstituted. Judges who were dismissed arbitrarily by Musharraf in November are being restored to the bench by the government my party leads, and I believe Parliament must enact a system of judicial reform to ensure that future judges are selected based on merit.

The PPP and those aligned with us are unequivocally committed to an independent judiciary guaranteed by Parliament, consistent with the constitution and independent of political pressure.

I am committed to a democratic, moderate and progressive Pakistan. My views on confronting and containing terrorism are well known. I will work to defeat the domestic Taliban insurgency and to ensure that Pakistani territory is not used to launch terrorist attacks on our neighbors or on NATO forces in Afghanistan.

It is important to remember that Pakistan, too, is a victim of terrorism. Our soldiers are dying on the front lines; our children are being blown up by suicide bombers. We stand with the United States, Britain, Spain and others who have been attacked. Fundamentally, however, the war we our fighting is our war. This battle is for Pakistan's soul. My wife's inflexible stance on defeating terrorists cost her her life. My party and I are struggling to save our nation.

I spent nine years in prison as a hostage to my wife's career and to my party's future. I was imprisoned because of unsubstantiated charges -- which it is now acknowledged were politically motivated -- and was never convicted of anything, even under a judicial system controlled by our adversaries. I turned down countless offers of freedom in exchange for betraying my wife, our principles and our party. Those years made me a stronger person and hardened my resolve to fight for democracy. I wish I could do it at my wife's side. Now I must do it in my wife's place.

The dictatorial forces that have dominated Pakistan for so long are seeking partners to destabilize the new democratic government. The establishment and its allies have unleashed a barrage of attacks against me, my wife and even our children. This is consistent with the politics of personal destruction and character assassination that have defined the elites for more than 30 years. The people of Pakistan have always rejected this campaign and supported us in free elections. We continue to stand firm against the forces of dictatorship.

My family has already paid the ultimate price for our commitment to democracy. The Feb. 18 elections were an important step in Pakistan's transition to democracy. I hope that my own democratic election Saturday will seal the victory of democracy over dictatorship and, at long last, allow our country to defeat the terrorist threat and address the people's needs.

The writer is co-chairman of the Pakistan People's Party.

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Pakistan's Zardari, Once on the Sidelines, Eyes Presidency

By Candace Rondeaux
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 5, 2008.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 4 -- Two decades ago, Asif Ali Zardari was virtually unknown in the high-flying political circles that his new wife, Benazir Bhutto, traveled in.

When the son of a cinema owner married the daughter of a legendary president, he told reporters that he had no taste for politics. "One politician in a family is enough," Zardari said.

But since Bhutto was assassinated in December, Zardari has demonstrated an enormous appetite for what he once claimed to reject. He has taken control of his wife's Pakistan People's Party, led it to its ruling perch in the country's government and, on the eve of a parliamentary vote, positioned himself as the leading contender to replace his wife's onetime nemesis, Pervez Musharraf, as president of the republic.

If Zardari is elected Saturday, his ascension will consolidate his party's hold on the government and bring on a new era in U.S.-Pakistan relations after years of White House backing for Musharraf's military rule. Faced with intensifying U.S. demands to quash the threat from the rising Taliban insurgency within the country's borders, Pakistan's next president will have to navigate the choppy waters of the country's alliance with the United States at a time when anti-American sentiment here has never been stronger.

Analysts here say Zardari may just be the man for the job of managing the Pakistan-U.S. alliance. He is a former resident of New York's affluent Upper East Side. He often chooses well-tailored two-piece suits over the traditional, loose-fitting salwar-kameez that is the de rigueur dress of politicians in this majority-Muslim nation.

"He is much more aligned with the U.S., and even more so after his wife's death," said retired Lt. Gen. Talat Masood, a leading political analyst here. "He is also by temperament and background oriented toward the West."

"I think the American relationship with Pakistan stays the same," Zardari said in a recent interview with Newsweek's Lally Weymouth. "The experiment with the general has failed. Therefore, the U.S. has decided to support the democratic forces. [The civilian government] will be weak for the moment, but we will learn from our mistakes, and we will go on and improve. That is the journey that the country and the people have to take to make a strong democracy."

Zardari is known to many people here as "Mr. 10 Percent" because of allegations that he raked in millions of dollars in kickbacks during his wife's two terms as prime minister in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Zardari spent 11 years in prison on corruption charges that were lodged against him when he was a member of Parliament and minister in Bhutto's government. But he was never convicted and in recent months, Pakistan's government dropped the case as part of an amnesty deal that Bhutto negotiated with Musharraf last year.

But the case continues to haunt Zardari. Since he declared his presidential candidacy Aug. 23, details have emerged from the array of corruption cases lodged against him not only in Pakistan but in Switzerland, Spain and Britain.

Late last month, questions regarding Zardari's mental health surfaced after court documents in the now-defunct British corruption case were made public. According to the documents, which were first reported by the Financial Times, a New York psychiatrist diagnosed Zardari as suffering from dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

The parties of the two candidates opposing Zardari in the presidential race have savaged him, saying his history of mental illness should bar him from running for office. News of the psychological reports and reports that a Swiss court would soon release about $60 million in frozen assets to Zardari after closing its case against him prompted sharp criticism from Pakistani Sen. Mushahid Hussain, the presidential candidate for Musharraf's former Pakistan Muslim League-Q party.

"In the West, such a controversial track record would make any person clearly ineligible to hold such a high office as the presidency," Hussain said.

Zardari declined repeated requests for an interview with The Washington Post. But in a column that the newspaper published this week, he called the allegations of bribery and money laundering "unsubstantiated" and "politically motivated."

Aides to Zardari have mounted a vigorous defense, saying that the reports of $60 million in frozen assets are untrue. They have also sought to recast his reported mental health problems as a natural but temporary result of years of torture. "Like anyone who has been through 11 1/2 years in prison, his health was affected at that time. But he is a remarkable and resilient person. He is in extremely good health in every sense," said Farah Ispahani, a top spokeswoman for Zardari's party.

Yet even some party insiders acknowledge that years of public scrutiny, numerous threats to his life and his wife's highly public assassination last year have made the presumptive next president seem paranoid at times. Zardari's circle of trusted aides and advisers is relatively small as a result. "At times, he is someone who tries too hard to read between the lines, and he seems to be someone who is quite fearful of the invisible hand of Pakistan's intelligence agencies," said a party adviser who, like several people interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of political sensitivities.

Under Musharraf, the country's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate and Military Intelligence Bureau became powerful tools used to discredit his opponents. Shortly before Bhutto was killed in an attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, she said that Ijaz Shah, onetime director of the Military Intelligence Bureau, and Hamid Gul, former director of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, were two of three men close to Musharraf who should be held responsible were she to be killed. The allegation has never been proved. Yet, fears about Zardari's security have persisted.

An assassination attempt on Zardari's political associate, Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani, on Wednesday served to raise already heightened concerns about Zardari's safety. Those concerns, his supporters say, are one reason he has largely refrained from making public appearances or granting interviews in the days leading up to the election.

If he becomes president, he will face the daunting test of a divided Parliament. In recent days, he has come under attack from former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, his onetime partner in the coalition government formed after their parties were swept to power in Feb. 18 national parliamentary elections. Sharif worked closely with Zardari after the elections to mount a united front against Musharraf. But the coalition collapsed a week after Musharraf resigned Aug. 18 in the face of impeachment charges.

Sharif, who was ousted by Musharraf in a 1999 military coup, said he decided to quit the coalition after Zardari reneged on a promise to restore Pakistan's tattered judiciary. Incensed by Zardari's decision to run for office, Sharif selected former Supreme Court chief justice Saeed-uz-Zaman Siddiqui to compete against him on his party's ticket. A longtime political ally of Sharif, Siddiqui was appointed chief justice in July 1999 but was ousted months later when he refused to endorse the military coup led by Musharraf that ended Sharif's term as prime minister.

The fates of dozens of judges fired by Musharraf last year have become a defining factor in Pakistani politics. Sharif has been a vocal advocate for the judges' return to the bench. He has especially insisted on the reinstatement of the ousted Supreme Court chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry. A staunch opponent of government corruption, Chaudhry could pose a threat to the legal indemnity granted to Zardari if restored to the high court.

Zardari has studiously avoided making specific references to Chaudhry but has vowed to restore the judiciary in general.

The quest to strike a balance among the judiciary, legislature and executive could be another test for Zardari if he becomes president. A series of amendments passed under Musharraf's government allows the president accumulated sweeping powers, including the power to dissolve Parliament.

"If I am elected president, one of my highest priorities will be to support the prime minister, the National Assembly and the Senate to amend the constitution to bring back into balance the powers of the presidency and thereby reduce its ability to bring down democratic governance," Zardari wrote in his column this week.

Whether Zardari has the opportunity to deliver on that and other promises will be determined Saturday, when Pakistan's four provincial assemblies, the National Assembly and the Senate take up the vote for the country's next president. The winning candidate needs 352 votes out of 702. The next president is expected to be sworn in next week.


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