SUKKUR - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari returned home on Tuesday from foreign visits to a chorus of criticism over his government's response to the country's worst flooding in 80 years. The floods, triggered by unusually heavy monsoon rain over the upper Indus river basin that started nearly two weeks ago, have ploughed a swathe of destruction more than 1,000 km (600 miles) long from northern Pakistan to the south, killing more than 1,600 people. The weather cleared in some areas allowing helicopters, including U.S. aircraft, to resume flights to help more than 13 million people -- about 8 percent of the population -- whose lives have been disrupted by the floods, including two million homeless. Zardari, the widower of assassinated former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and whose rule has been mired in controversy, enraged his critics by going ahead with visits to meet leaders in Britain and France as the catastrophe was unfolding. The military has taken the lead in relief efforts while the government is under fire for a perceived sluggish response. While the crisis has reinforced the faith Pakistanis have in the ability of their military, analysts say the armed forces would not try to take over the country, as they have vowed to stay out of politics and are busy fighting militants. "The president has returned and he is in Karachi. He will come to Islamabad," said Zardari's spokesman, Farhatullah Babar. A government official said Zardari was expected to visit flood-hit areas within days, but for many Pakistanis, his trip is too little, too late. "All that I can say about Zardari is that our houses are collapsing and his government is not even bothered," said Daraz Gul, a market salesman in the town of Nowshera in the northwest. "A government is supposed to be like a parent. If a parent leaves his children in trouble and goes on jaunts abroad, it is scandalous."
