VIP treatment: Zardari waits in copter for carpets to be rolled out

KARACHI: Although Pakistani politicians have often made headlines for their huge security protocols and lavish spending, former president Asif Ali Zardari seems to have surpassed all others in this regard.

On Tuesday evening, the Pakistan People's Party co-chairman returned to Karachi from Hub in a helicopter.

Video footage of his arrival showed the former president's helicopter landing at the Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim, but Zardari did not step out of the aircraft for minutes to follow.

It was then realised that the workmen present on the site were rolling out red carpets on the path between the ex-president's helicopter and his white Land Cruiser vehicle.

Zardari waited while the carpets were being laid out and later stepped out of the heli with all his grandeur.

He took only a few steps on the carpets to make it to his vehicle, parked a few feet away, in which he was driven to his residence less than a kilometer from the Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim.