President Zardari is a laughing-stock at home

While the British media concentrate on whether David Cameron and President Zardari can patch up their relationship following the PM's recent remarks about Pakistan "exporting terrorism", Asif Zardari's trip is receiving so much flak back home in Pakistan, it's a wonder he dares appear in public.

Not only has the President left the country at a time when the death toll from the monsoon floods is mounting, millions are already homeless, and more flooding is expected, but his visits to Paris and London have drawn attention to his wealth and luxurious lifestyle.

Little reported in Britain was the fact that during his visit to Paris earlier this week, while TV images of the flood victims and their rescuers were being shown across the world, Zardari took time out for a helicopter trip to visit the fabulous chateau owned by him and his late wife Benazir Bhutto in Normandy.

The Manoir de la Reine Blanche was built in the 16th century for the widow of King Philippe IV. And it gave Pakistani media commentators, already shocked at Zardari's willingness to leave the country at a time of crisis, a field day.

As Ayaz Amir writes in The News, it hardly helps when Pakistan is once again holding out the begging bowl that its President is showing off his French country pile. "The chateau is a reminder like nothing else of the president's enterprising spirit, the same huge talent which long ago earned him the imperishable title of Mr Ten Percent."

Zardari, who once served eight years in jail on corruption and drug smuggling charges - he came out in 2004 - earned that nickname while serving as the investment minister in Benazir Bhutto's government in the 1990s.

As the President travelled on from Paris to London for last night's dinner with Cameron and further talks this morning, the Pakistani papers had the chance to remind readers of Zardari's property holdings in Britain, not least the ivy-clad Rockwood House estate in Surrey, better known in Pakistan as 'Surrey Palace'.

There are other London properties, too, in the Zardari UK portfolio, but nothing as palatial as this - a 20-room house sitting on 365 acres of prime Surrey real estate. Zardari originally denied all knowledge of the place, but finally admitted to owning it when he was still in jail in 2004.

His British builder, tasked with renovating the house back in the mid-1990s, once told how on a visit to Rockwood, Asif Zardari called at the village pub, the Dog and Pheasant, and liked it so much that he offered to buy it. Informed that it was not for sale, he asked the builder to produce a replica of its bar in the basement of Surrey Palace.

The most serious criticism is reserved for Asif Zardari's perceived lack of any political acumen.

Shafqat Mahmood, writing in The News, said: "With TV pictures showing most of the country afloat in floodwaters, the president lounging around in France and London has become a media nightmare. To top it all, the British prime minister has shown no sign of backing off from his statement accusing Pakistan of exporting terror.

"All this talk of how Mr Zardari will look David Cameron in the eye and tell him off is nothing more than hogwash. The British media is seeing it more as a dressing-down that the Pakistani president will receive from the prime minister."

Most puzzling has been Zardari's unpreparedeness to grab the chance to avoid the meeting with Cameron and stay at home to take control of the nationwide rescue.

Zafar Hilaly, a former ambassador, writes in the Daily Times: "The sight of Mr Zardari, for example, clutching a rescued child to his chest while being pulled up into a helicopter, would have done more for his personal image than a whole year spent with Cameron at the latter's retreat at Chequers." ·