World | Pakistan
Zardari keeps studied silence
Journalists covering talks in Dubai told they will be briefed back home.
- By Ashfaq Ahmed, Chief Reporter
- Published: 00:30 May 2, 2008
Dubai: Asif Ali Zardari, co-chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) sought to remain tight-lipped with the media throughout the four days that talks were held in a bid to forge a consensus among the ruling coalition partners in Dubai.
"I don't do politics in Dubai, we are guests here and we should respect the local laws. I will speak to you in Pakistan," was Zardari's rather terse reply when journalists, sensing something amiss in the talks when he emerged from the hotel a good 10 minutes before the meeting ended, rushed to speak to him yesterday.
Journalists, especially those who had travelled from Pakistan, were not amused and gave vent to their feelings.
"On one side he holds political meetings in Dubai and on other he says he does not do politics in Dubai. Isn't it contradictory," asked one journalist who was in Dubai only to cover the meeting.
"We do not issue any political statements from Dubai because Zardari's family lives in Dubai," said a PPP aide, when asked why their leader had been avoiding the media.
It may be recalled here that the late Benazir Bhutto, for the nearly seven years that she lived in Dubai before returning to Pakistan in October last, never spoke to the media on political matters.
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