Word: zardari
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President Asif Ali Zardari, Bhutto's widower, has a small plurality in Parliament, little sway over Pakistan's all-powerful military and none of the charisma of his murdered wife. But for the moment, he will probably be Holbrooke's most enthusiastic partner. For all of Zardari's flaws, says Riedel, "he gets it: he knows this is as much his war as it is ours." Zardari can't ignore the now routine terrorist strikes within Pakistan; suicide bombers have attacked major cities, killing hundreds. Besides, since Bhutto's death, Zardari is at the top of al-Qaeda...
...another matter. "None of the things [the U.S.] cares about are in his control," says Christine Fair, a South Asia expert at the Rand Corp. Pakistan's security forces and intelligence agencies are hardly answerable to the civilian government. Still, the Obama Administration could at least try to strengthen Zardari's hand. A bill proposed last year by then Senator Joe Biden and Senator Richard Lugar calls for trebling U.S. economic assistance to Pakistan, to $1.5 billion annually for five years, with a possible extension for another five years. The bill enjoys bipartisan support and looks likely to pass. Spent...
...mildly, wise spending of such aid is not a given. Pakistan has a long history of corruption, so any leverage the U.S. has over Zardari might be used to ensure that he runs a clean administration and rebuilds Pakistan's institutions. Leaders of the reformist lawyers movement that helped undermine Musharraf, for example, say Zardari hasn't yet restored the courts' independence...
...Pakistan, on the other hand, is keen to get Holbrooke involved in the Kashmir dispute, which it has traditionally held is central to its differences with India . President Asif Zardari, in an Op-Ed for the Washington Post, wrote that he hoped the Special Envoy would "work with India and Pakistan...to bring a just and reasonable resolution to [the Kashmir issue...
...Islamabad has long argued that the disputed territory inflames Pakistani sentiment and feeds terrorist groups. More recently, Pakistan has played the terrorism card in other disputes with India. Zardari's Op-Ed noted that the two countries are currently arguing about water from rivers that flow through both countries; Pakistan says it is denied a rightful share of the water by Indian dams. Failure to resolve the water dispute, Zardari warned, "could fuel the fires of discontent that lead to extremism and terrorism." (See pictures of Pakistan's vulnerable northwest passage...