Zardari must prove he is trustworthy: Media
Pakistan's president-elect Asif Ali Zardari must work quickly to remove all doubts about his chequered past and prove to the people that he can be trusted, local media said yesterday.
Zardari won more than two-thirds of the votes in a secret ballot Saturday to become the country's 14th president, succeeding Pervez Musharraf, the former army general whose resignation last month triggered the election.
Dawn, the leading English-language newspaper here, said the new president, the widower of slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, had to convince the public he is ready to be a democratic leader, and that his past is behind him.
"There have been more controversial presidents in the past... but none has been as controversial as Zardari at the time of assuming office," the paper said in an editorial, alluding to the 11 years he spent in jail on charges ranging from corruption to murder.
"What Zardari needs to do is to dispel the impression that he is a political wheeler dealer who is adept at making backroom deals but unable to rise to the requirements of statesmanship.
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