Guardians of sovereignty

Press guns have been relentlessly fired at the US visit of Asif Zardari (in his new presidential guise which is taking some getting used to), all, that is, apart from the 'article writers' in the employ of the Information Ministry. Taking into account the fact that Asif is a relic of the politics of the 1990s, and has had the benefit of Benazir's tutelage, he could have performed better.

He went overboard on a selection of issues, such as the Marshall Plan reference in his address to the UNGA (photograph of Benazir placed carefully on the rostrum), his remarks to Sarah Palin and Joe Biden (luckily he was restricted to the vice presidential candidates), and of course the famous "world is a safer place" statement which beggars belief. Could it have slipped his mind that a mere nine months earlier his wife had been murdered, and that on September 20 the leading hotel in his capital city had been blown up?

What were his 'handlers' up to? The most humorous of the reports on his gaffes came from the Observer last Sunday. On the Palin incident the report had it that the "room was filled with sycophantic Pakistani officials, Palin was first slobbered over by the country's information minister..." Zardari, not to be outdone, did his bit. Quite factually, "this hyperbolic flattery is common in elitist social circles in Pakistan...and with his flagrant display of sleaze-ball rhetoric, Zardari unwittingly symbolised the turbulent and twisted relationship between the US and its volatile, erstwhile lover, Pakistan."