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When the going in Pakistan gets tough, its leaders… travel

ISLAMABAD: When they need to talk, Pakistani leaders head to Dubai. Or London. But the people of Pakistan are beginning to ask why their leaders must fly to foreign venues for making crucial decisions regarding the future of the country.

The latest in the foreign locales saga took place in Dubai on Wednesday, where Pakistan People’s Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, the leader behind the throne, summoned an “urgent” party meeting.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had to jet in to the emirate from Malaysia, where he was attending the D-8 developing Muslim nations conference. Three Cabinet Ministers and the party spokesman flew out from Pakistan. Mr. Zardari had already arrived in Dubai via Turkey and Greece.

The Dubai meeting was reportedly summoned to discuss the future of the PPP’s coalition with the Pakistan Muslim League (N) which withdrew from the Cabinet in May due to differences over the judges’ issue.

The PPP has not filled the vacant Cabinet slots yet, saying it will wait for the PML (N) to come back. At the moment, PPP Ministers hold additional charge of the vacated portfolios. But the question being asked is why should one-third of the Cabinet fly to an expensive foreign city for something that should have been discussed right here in Pakistan.

One columnist in the daily Tribune asked if anyone had heard of Sonia Gandhi summoning her party members to Kathmandu or Mauritius for a conference, or of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown summoning his Cabinet to Bonn or Paris.

“Would it not have been better if instead of the PPP’s battalion travelling all the way to Dubai, God knows at whose expenditure, [Mr. Zardari] himself should have come over for a day or so to Islamabad for the purpose, for that would have been far more economical,” the wrote.

Next, Mr. Zardari is to fly to London, where PML(N) leader Nawaz Sharif is spending some time with his wife who is recovering from a surgery. The word is that the two leaders “may” meet in the British capital to talk about the future of their coalition.

If they do, it will not be their first rendezvous in that pleasant city. London was the venue for a previous round of talks between the two leaders on the vexed question of restoring the judges sacked by President Pervez Musharraf — their respective teams brainstormed at Starbucks — after they failed to reach agreement at an earlier meeting in Dubai.

“The present practice of our top leaders to hold meetings abroad on domestic issues is astonishing,” wrote Lt. Gen (retd.) Talat Masood in the Daily Times. “Apart from the expense involved for a poor country like Pakistan, it is demeaning and bizarre. This indirectly is a reflection of the scant interest that our leaders have in the affairs of the state”.

Mr. Zardari’s excuse is that he needs to be with his children living in Dubai every now and then.

But in part at least, the need to hold meetings abroad appears to be a hangover from the days of exile politics, when both Benazir Bhutto, the slain leader of the PPP, and Mr. Sharif were living abroad, the first in self-exile, and the second banished from his country.

It was during this time that the two leaders softened towards each other enough for a rapprochement, leading to the “Charter of Democracy”, their agreement to work together for democratic rule, in May 2006. Even President Musharraf had to travel to Abu Dhabi for negotiations with Ms. Bhutto in July 2007, their talks eventually facilitating her return to Pakistan three months later.

But with the exiled leadership back and elected to power, their constant urge to head out in order to discuss political issues has raised concerns, especially at a time the country is facing serious problems.

On Thursday, Pakistan woke up to the news that Taliban had surrounded a police station in the North-West Frontier Province, they were harassing cable operators in another part of the province asking them to shut down operations, and that at least 32 children have gone missing in Swat, suspected to have been kidnapped, again by Taliban militants.

They also woke up to pictures of their Prime Minister in Dubai along with Mr. Zardari, his three children, Bilawal, Bhaktawar and Asifa, and the other PPP members summoned to the meeting..

It led the Tribune to comment that Pakistan had the “unique distinction” of being the only nation with four capitals: “Washington first”, a reference to U.S. influence over the country. “And then London, Dubai and finally Islamabad”.

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