“He (President Zardari) was ill, he feared life threats in Pakistan hospitals, that was the reason he did not want to go to any hospital of Pakistan,” Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in his address in the Senate.
Prior to today’s statement by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, there existed no popular precedence in modern history in which the President of a Country would fail to get access to ‘safe’ medical treatment for himself in his own country. President Zardari’s sudden exit from Pakistan and admittance to the American Hospital in Dubai for treatment is a great jolt to the Presidency’s image. The very national image of Pakistan is in jeopardy of which the President of Pakistan is a sworn custodian.
Zardari is in Dubai for Heart Treatment and Tests since early December 2011
Pakistani public’s displeasure with President Zardari’s representation of his country has always made headlines. Zardari was strongly criticized by the masses when during the worst floods in Pakistani modern history the President instead of holding fort chose to go for a euro-tour. The Government machinery claimed that Zardari’s euro-tour was aimed at generating support for Pakistan but nothing considerable actually happened that could be linked directly to Zardari’s tour. Pakistani public has questioned the self-imposed confinement of Asif Zardari within the Presidency outside of which he is rarely if ever reported participating in any official activities. If at all President Zardari has moved out to it has been either his home town of Garhi Khuda Bukhsh in Sind or on foreign tours.
The latest addition to this history of Zardari’s Presidency is the Memogate Scandal. The Supreme Court had ordered Memogate stakeholders, including President Zardari, to submit their responses by December 15, 2011. Despite being declared in good health by the able specialist doctors of the prestigious Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology (AFIC) in Rawalpindi cantonment, President Zardari thought it best to leave the country and trust the American Hospital in Dubai. The message it gives to the Pakistani people is very wrong: The very custodian of national honor and entrusted with ensuring the best possible health care for the Pakistani people himself does not trust the very best of his country’s doctors. Not only that but President Zardari does not even considers himself safe amidst the top level security provided to anyone in Pakistan. President Zardari or his Government do not seem to understand how badly do these decisions tarnish the national image of Pakistan.
The PPP government must realize the mistakes they are continually committing unless their momentum has made it too difficult for them to see where they are headed.