The nation deserves congratulating

Well, the entire nation deserves congratulations, even though only legislators voted. Asif Zardari has become President of Pakistan. The people have spoken, through their elected representatives, as much as they spoke while electing his predecessor, who was none other than Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf had to take off his uniform before being elected; Zardari has had to take off nothing, except perhaps a wife, for it is hard to imagine Benazir Bhutto, if she had somehow escaped the assassin’s bullet, deciding to pick Asif to be President, when she herself was capable of taking on the job. There is the added dimension of the Presidency, which assumes, for its running, that the occupant will be married, not a widower like Asif. However, the Presidency staff will adapt. They have adapted to military rulers with residences in Army House in Rawalpindi, so why shouldn’t they adapt now?