Challenges For Pakistan's New President

Marriott Hotel Bombing

Pakistan’s Faith in Its New Leader Is Shaken
-- New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A week after the bomb attack on the Marriott Hotel here, Pakistan is struggling to deal with a financial meltdown and a terrorism threat that has moved to the nation’s heart and badly shaken confidence in the new government among Pakistanis, diplomats and investors alike.

In New York on Friday, President Asif Ali Zardari met with representatives of a group of donor countries, including the United States and Saudi Arabia, who were trying to come up with $5 billion to prevent Pakistan from defaulting on its debt.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said afterward that the United States would work toward Pakistan’s economic stability. But no decisions were made, according to participants, except that the donors would meet again in Abu Dhabi next month.

As the financial situation has deteriorated, diplomats here have become increasingly uneasy about the government’s capacity to prevent further attacks on the scale of the hotel bombing, which killed at least 53 people and wounded more than 250 others.

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My Comment: An economic and stock market collapse, coupled with a full scale war in the Tribal Regions .... the new President has his work cut out for him.