The mobile presidency

Zardari's staff is in Dubai to help him keep an eye on Pakistan. We look towards politics without borders.

We can always count on Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari to show us the way. It now seems that he will be able to run his fractious country from as far away as Dubai. Now Pakistan, we know, is not the easiest of countries to run. But we do admire this new model of governance that is being tried out. Perhaps we could try it out here. Zardari's staff, we gather, will go on to this shoppers' paradise, and be with him while he recovers from a yet undisclosed illness, though it is thought that his ticker may be a bit off colour. The experts in Dubai feel that they need to keep very close to his heartbeat for the moment.

HT Image

Now this is something that we could deal with in our own capacity. Why is it necessary, we ask you as a first step, for a leader to be in a particular geographical location to actually keep an eye on things? Is it necessary to observe geographical boundaries when keeping a neighbourhood watch? These questions may take many white papers to answer. However, we, as always, like to bring things closer home. Could we not write these gems that you so love sitting at home? Would you think any less of us for that? Please don't answer any of this, we will be bringing you whatever you may fancy as the year ends. But, for the Pakistanis, we wonder if they are all right with a prez sitting in faraway shores running the show. If not, do you think that a outfit like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, which claims that it does not exist in Pakistan, but which claims to be speaking for Kashmiris on this side of the border could possibly be legit?