After winning the toss and batting at Bellerive Oval, a battered Ponting (26 not out) weathered a well-calculated bouncer barrage to steer his team to 3-80 at lunch.
The home side lost both openers - Simon Katich for 11 and Shane Watson for 29 - and Mike Hussey (6) but it could have been even worse for the Australians.
Ponting was dropped before he scored and was also hit on the helmet twice as he instinctively pulled and hooked.
The 35-year-old came into his home Test desperate to stamp his authority and prove himself against the short-ball after being plagued by an arm injury since being struck by West Indies tearaway Kemar Roach last month.
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The tourists immediately set the trap with two fielders on the rope on the leg-side boundary, but the Tasmanian could not resist when the luckless Mohammad Asif fired in the first bumper.
Ponting helped it on its way directly to Mohammad Aamer at long-leg to provide the easiest of regulation catches but the teenager juggled and then spilt the sitter.
He sat pained, with his head in his arms, for seconds after the drop, knowing the enormity of his miss.
Ponting continued to ride his luck against the short ball, mistiming more pulls and hooks, and was smacked on the head twice by Umar Gul.
The Australian skipper, enduring his leanest season in nine years, also showed some good signs as he settled into the groove with his off-side play.
In overcast conditions, Pakistan's pace attack carried on their fine form from the first-innings at the SCG on what was expected to be a Hobart belter.
Katich was dismissed leg before by Asif after Pakistan correctly called for a umpiring referral after a long mid-pitch conference between captain, bowler and debutant wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed.
Third umpire Billy Doctrove overruled Asoka de Silva after replays showed Asif's inswinger would have hit just below the bails.
The series' leading run-scorer, Watson, again looked a million dollars before he cut Gul (1-13) to gully just after the drinks break.
Aamer went part way in atoning for his missed catch by finding Hussey's defensive edge and providing Sarfraz with his first catch in Test cricket.
Vice-captain Michael Clarke was seven not out at the break.
