President Asif Zardaris going to Dubai for a medical check-up has caused much speculation, and caused the whole nation some uncomfortable moments. One reason is that he is not just President, but also PPP Co-Chairman. Though as President his illness revived the memories of the illness of other heads of state, such as Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad and President Ayub Khan. As head of the PPP, a mass party, his health is considered a matter in which many take a personal interest normally only reserved for relatives. However, this illness has shown that the PPP is woefully unprepared for an emergency, because it seems that everyone wants to get in on the act. Apart from Cabinet members, the spokesmen of both the Presidency and Prime Ministers House got involved. The government should realise that confusion over the President only causes the nation distress, and must be avoided. At such a time, there will be a host of inquiries, and it would not be appropriate for everyone to be ready to answer queries when they have not been properly briefed. There is no use anyone joining uninformed speculation just because of the office they hold. It would be appropriate for one person, predetermined, to be thoroughly briefed, and everyone to refer inquiries to that person, and that person only. However, that is not the only issue raised by this sudden illness. While the President has already been diagnosed with a heart condition, and it needs no excuse to flare up, and while the President, who is 58, is of an age where the illness could worsen, it is also true that cardiac episodes are caused by unusual tension. It has already been speculated that the episode may have been caused by excessive tension. It is true that the President has been under more job-related tension than usual, with the attack by NATO on a Pakistani checkpost, in which 24 soldiers were killed, coming at almost the same time as the Memogate scandal, which threatens to implicate the President himself, while there have been orders by the Supreme Court in the preceding week which affected him closely, in connection with the NRO and Memogate. It would only be in the fitness of things for him to disclose his position on these matters, or any others that might be worrying him. The promised presidential address to the joint session cannot very well be postponed, for no date was given for it, but it must take place when he returns after his recovery, and he must use this as an opportunity to unburden himself and share with the nation the concerns that drove him to this pass.