Where millions of acres of land in Sindh has gone under flood waters, Fridays all newspapers carried the photo of our President Asif Ali Zardari on front page showing him wading through knee deep water. Perhaps he wanted to annul the impression of his last year'sabsencefrom the country during the devastating floods. The papers said that he had set aside the security and protocol to meet the marooned and affected people of his home town, Benazirabad. His press photographer,I thinkis a novicewhoshowedhis entire security cordonwith two commandoes on hiseach side with loaded automatic weapons in the picture. Except for his military secretary, Chief Ministerand a couple of officials closely following him, all were protecting him from all directions. Theso-calledbazaar and the houses aroundwere all deserted to provide fool proof security to the popularly elected President.The news further said that the crowd cheered him and he shook hands with them. He must haveshaken handswith the ghosts of the inhabitants of that area as onecould notsee even a single soul except his security people around him.This photo session left a bad taste to the viewers as itprojected a deliberate attempt to get popular with the masses. People are no more simpletons. Now they know how the rulers are looting the country and living a royal life of Mughal emperors, where millions of rupees are being spent daily on their maintenance. MUHAMMAD AZHAR KHWAJA, Lahore, September 9.