MILITANTS

The government must respond to western pressure to clamp down on Taliban and al-Qaida guerrillas attacking targets in Pakistan and Afghanistan without provoking a tribal uprising or alienating a public already skeptical of the Pakistani role in Washington's war on terror.

ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

Pakistan needs donors to top up its foreign currency reserves and prevent a run on the rupee. The government has slashed subsidies to fight a widening budget deficit and is under pressure to do more to soften the blow of inflation running at more than 20 per cent. Investment and economic growth are slowing.

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION

As president, Zardari will chair the joint military-civilian committee that controls Pakistan's nuclear weapons. He also will likely face calls for the release of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the scientist blamed for passing nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, and questions about whether Khan knows more about secret atom bomb projects in other countries.

DEMOCRACY

The election completes Pakistan's return to civilian rule nine years after Pervez Musharraf's military coup, but the country could be more democratic. Zardari will be under pressure to resign as leader of his political party and return powers that Musharraf took away from parliament. Doubts remain about the independence of the judiciary purged by Musharraf.

INDIA

A peace process with India begun by Musharraf has stalled without solving the core dispute over Kashmir. Recent mass protests in Kashmir have reawakened Pakistani hopes that it might one day gain control of the Himalayan territory over which the countries have twice gone to war. India accuses Pakistani spies of helping bomb its embassy in Kabul.

STAYING ALIVE

Zardari has already moved into the prime minister's residence because of concern for his safety, and his wife, Bhutto, was assassinated in December. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilan's limousine was fired on earlier this week. Musharraf survived several assassination attempts, including suicide bombings blamed on al-Qaida.