An accidental president

Pakistan is somewhat in disarray, so it is said and so it is perceived. Is there a government? We are not sure. What we do know is that there is a president who has assumed unto himself the mantle of the state, sitting atop a hair-breadth based political would-be elite which bends to his every desire.

Asif Zardari has convinced himself that he is the be-all and end-all - and he makes no bones about it. As reported in the Wall Street Journal on October 4 when referring to Pakistan's war he dubs it "my war", the country's fighter-jets are "my F-16s", the Intelligence Bureau is "my IB" and he wants the world to "give me USD100 billion". He alludes to the economic crisis by admitting that before he can get foreign help he will "have to make my credibility, my case." It is "my budgetary support," "my treasury," "my capital," On security and the ongoing suicide bombers, he asks, "If I can't pay my own oil bill how am I going to increase my police? The oil companies are asking me to pay USD135 [per barrel] of oil and at the same time they want me to keep the world peaceful and Pakistan peaceful."