AS had been widely anticipated Asif Ali Zardari, leader of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) won a comfortable victory in yesterday's presidential elections, ensuing a first five-year term in office.

"It's not only a victory for Mr Zardari and the Pakistan People's Party, but it's a victory for Benazir Bhutto's dream of a democratic political system," said party spokeswoman Farzana Raja as party workers chanted "long live Bhutto".

Benazir Bhutto was killed in a suicide attack on December 27 last year, just weeks after returning from years in exile. Her party now holds the presidency and leads the government.

Zardari secured 480 out of 702 electoral college votes, according to unofficial Election Commission figures. As the results became clear, Pakistan's information minister, Sherry Rehman, announced that the new president was intent on introducing reforms to correct the balance of power between the president and the prime minister.

"Mr Zardari is a political figure who has stakes in the stability of the system," she said. "The decade of manipulation of the presidency has tilted the balance of power away from parliamentary forces. The system could only be corrected by individuals and institutions that have respect for the will of the people."

For Zardari, the elections were the easy part. As his party enjoyed a majority in the national assembly and in three of the four provincial assemblies, he was a virtual shoo-in from the moment President Pervez Musharraf was forced to stand down following the threat to impeach him last month.

Not only did Zardari enjoy widespread support but in the wake of his wife's assassination he produced a handwritten will announcing her wish that he should succeed her in the event of her death. Many doubt the note is genuine but such was Bhutto's standing in the country that it gave Zardari a head start in the election process.

The next part will not be so easy. Pakistan faces two crises which will continue to undermine the country's stability and provide Zardari with the biggest threat to his hold on power. First, the economy is in meltdown and, secondly, Islamic fundamentalists continue to be a source of potential trouble.

The recent financial slump could reduce Pakistan's ailing economy to unsustainable levels - the main stock index is down 34% this year - while terrorism will continue to make the country ungovernable unless it is brought under control. Sixteen people were killed in a bomb blast in Peshawar yesterday.

As Musharraf found, this is the Achilles heel for any president and Zardari will discover that it is no different for him. In the past the PPP has stood firm against the so-called Talibanisation of Islamic society in Pakistan and that will continue to drive government policy. Zardari himself enjoys close links with Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy to the United Nations, who has been one of the key players in forging close links between Washington and Islamabad. A US diplomatic source admitted that, whatever Zardari's faults, he remained "the best bet if the border areas with Afghanistan are ever going to be pacified".

HOWEVER, getting into bed with the US brings its own problems. Not only are many Pakistanis suspicious of US intentions, but others resent any interference in the area, especially in the buffer zone with Afghanistan provided by the tribal areas. That much became apparent last Wednesday when US special forces killed 15 villagers during a raid from Afghanistan into southern Waziristan. During Musharraf's presidency, Pakistani commanders on the border turned a blind eye to such land force incursions and to the regular appearance in their skies of missile-firing drones but last week's incident could be a raid too far.

"There is no high-value target or known terrorist among the dead," Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, told the national assembly. "Only innocent civilians, including women and children, have been targeted."

This raid was followed by a missile strike which killed five villagers on Friday. Defence officials in the Pentagon claimed they had evidence those killed had given shelter to al-Qaeda and Taliban operatives in the area, but given the nature of society in the tribal areas that is to be expected. For the Pushtun people the third virtue of Pukhtunwali, the code of honour which governs their lives, is melmastia - hospitality - which has to be offered without stint to friend or foe.

As US commanders in Afghanistan have vowed to continue to making cross-border raids as long as they have evidence that incursions are taking place, this will be an obvious first test for Zardari. He needs to maintain his links with Washington, but he also knows that too cosy a relationship will damage his standing within his own country. The Pakistani army has already been criticised by retired senior officers for fighting a proxy war in the tribal areas - they would prefer to see the peace being kept by the local truces which have been brokered with the powerful Utmanzai tribe of Waziristan.

Then there is the man himself. Zardari has history and his past could come back to haunt him. Known as "Mr Ten per cent" he spent time in prison a decade ago during corruption investigations which were only dropped last year in a controversial deal with Musharraf. The charges are complicated and involve skimming off funds from government contracts. While they have never been proven satisfactorily, they will inevitably bring an air of corrupt practices to his administration. There have also been concerns about his health following allegations that he is suffering from dementia or depression.

If all else fails and Zardari fails to produce a workable administration there is always the armed forces, which have often intervened in the past to solve the country's domestic political problems. Although General Ashfaq Kiyani, the chief of the army's general staff, claims to have no desire to play any political role, concern about the consequences of yesterday's result could change his mind. If the general does think again he will find that he will be supported by earlier Zardari loyalists such as Shaheen Sehbai, group editor of The News, a leading Pakistani newspaper, who has called on the army to intervene.

"Let the power of the guns and barrels be used, for a change, in the interest of the nation and the people," he said in an interview with Al-Jazeera when it became clear that Zardari would win the election. "It is obvious that the politicians cannot clean the dirt as they are neither prepared nor motivated to look beyond their noses."