Zardari to shorten Russia tour

“Yes, this tour has been cut short, it will be for a few hours now,” a presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar said.

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has cut back a scheduled visit to Russia to a few hours and will not stay for lunch because of worsening floods in his country, his office said on Friday.

“Yes, this tour has been cut short, it will be for a few hours now,” a presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told AFP.

President Zardari earlier came under fire from flood victims, the political opposition and critics over his failure to cut short a visit to Europe, last week in order to deal personally with what is now the country’s worst humanitarian crisis.

Zardari was originally scheduled to arrive in Russia on August 18 for two days, in order to attend a four-way summit on regional security with the leaders of Afghanistan, Russia and Tajikistan.

“The original schedule for the president’s two-day visit to Russia to participate in the quadrilateral summit was finalised several weeks ago, but now he will return to the country the same day,” Babar said.

“The president will not participate in the lunch hosted in honour of the heads of states,” he further added in his statement.

It should be noted here that the two weeks of monsoon rain and flooding has affected 15-20 million people directly or indirectly.

The United Nations believes 1,600 people have died, while Islamabad has confirmed 1,343 deaths.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 14^th, 2010.