Pakistan in Media

Editorial, The News International, Pakistan
Thursday, May 14, 2009
President Zardari is coming in for quite a bit of stick ñ again. It is all too easy for the media to have a go at our ëaccidentalí president, whose style of governance has variously been described as ëdictatorialí, ëineptí and ëfeudalí to name but three. Complaint is being made currently about his absence from the country at a crucial phase of the military operation in Swat and other parts of NWFP; as well as not ëbeing hereí for the IDPs. Both the national and the international press and sections of our electronic media have castigated Mr Zardari for being AWOL at a time when the country needs him and that this is yet another example of his somewhat cavalier approach to governance. It is easy to criticize the president, but there is another side to this coin, and that side tells us that the president is doing exactly what he should be doing, and lets leave aside how well or ill he is doing it.

Presidents visit other presidents and prime ministers. They are always preceded by a bevy of aides and civil servants who will have met with a bevy of aides and civil servants representing whoever they are meeting, and it is their job to work out the details of the agreements that the presidents then sign. Presidents have no part of this detail work; they are just there for the photo-call and the ceremonial signature with perhaps a little gentle discourse to make sure that both sides actually have an understanding of what it is that their civil servants have written and that they have just signed. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the government and the country gets on with whatever it was doing before the president went a-junketing ñ and in todayís case it is getting on with a large military operation against a determined enemy and the management of the biggest movement of IDPs since partition. The show at home is managed by the prime minster, Mr Gilani ñ a man who has grown perceptibly in recent months. He will of course be consulting the president, but events are moving so fast and are so complex that arms-length micro-management is not a presidential option. It is Gilani who needs to be here, not Mr Zardari. The president is apprised of the state of play at least daily and probably hourly, will conclude his business overseas and eventually return. The IDP-Swat crisis will have done little for our image elsewhere, but it may have ñ perversely ñ strengthened the roles and clarified the role-definition of, our president and prime minister