IT takes ages for governing coalitions to be formed in Pakistan - after the parliamentary elections earlier this year the party leaders almost disappeared from sight for six weeks while they haggled over the sharing of power.
How remarkable, therefore, that Asif Zardawi was sworn in as President yesterday only two weeks after Pervez Musharraf resigned the post rather than face impeachment. The key to this speed was that the President is elected by secret ballot in the national parliament and four provincial assemblies - and that Pakistan is in dire need of a figure of authority to deal with the country's many serious problems. Whether Asif Zardawi, Benazir Bhutto's widower, will prove to be that figure is uncertain. His political experience is limited and his reputation is cloudy; still, he has Pakistan's largest party in parliament behind him.
It was a surprise that Hamid Karzai, Afghanistan's President, should have attended Zardawi's swearing-in ceremony and afterwards have held a joint press conference with him. Relations between the two men have been touchy but mutual understanding is absolutely essential if the problems on their shared frontier are to be solved. Karsai believes that many of his country's problems stem from the ease with which the Taliban militias cross into Pakistan between missions and he wants the Pakistan army to take tougher measures against them. Zardawi probably agrees with him but is not yet sure whether he can require the Army to take such action and get public support for it also.
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