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PAKISTAN:ASIF ALI ZARDARI will be sworn in tomorrow as Pakistan's president, following his election victory at the weekend, amid warnings from opposition voices that the country is in danger of a "civilian dictatorship" after the military rule of Gen Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Zardari inherits a country facing a deep economic and security crisis, where the hold of democracy is still fragile. The widower of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto will have to reconcile the domestic unpopularity of the country's alliance with the West in the "war against terror" with international demands that Islamabad do more to rein in extremists based in Pakistan's tribal territory, who threaten Nato's mission in Afghanistan.