The Nation of 29-3-2009 has published a coloured picture of President Zardari's address to joint sitting of the Parliament wherein Governor Balochistan, sitting in the VVIP gallery, is shown smoking a cigarette with abandon. The CM Balochistan is sitting besides him looking on in apparent disapproval. Public smoking in Parliament, and that too while the President is on rostrum, evokes an impression of deliberate defiance. There is, then, the not so insignificant matter of smoking in a hall where it is prohibited by law. Even if the Governor is prone to chain smoking, he could have certainly held his patience for half an hour. -DR MUHAMMAD YAQOOB BHATTI, Lahore, via e-mail, March 30.