Protester hurls a shoe at Asif Zardari

[sparklingway]

Apparently, Bilawal has raised 70,000 GBP for the National Disaster Management Fund. That turns out to be around 9.6 million PKR. Now, if the chattering ones would not post their usual will-go-into-swiss-account argument, around 10 million is a pretty good raise from a single event.

To hell with Bilawal but if he can raise some more millions for the relief funds, make him do fundraisers everywhere.

Anyways, pity the nation which gives millions of their hard-earned money to mass murders like Hafiz Saeed and sponsor suicidal attacks on themselves. Pity the nation which conveniently ignores Yahya Khan for the Dhaka debacle. Pity the nation which loves barbarians and breachers of constitution like Zia. Pity the nation which gives guard of honour to looters and gate-crashers like Musharraf. Pity the nation which has no guts to oppose armed occupiers, looters, constitution breachers and mass-murders but celebrates kicking the sand-bag of someone who represents nothing more than our very own collective failures, weaknesses and apathy to towards communal progress.

 

[waraich66]

Apparently, Bilawal has raised 70,000 GBP for the National Disaster Management Fund. That turns out to be around 9.6 million PKR. Now, if the chattering ones would not post their usual will-go-into-swiss-account argument, around 10 million is a pretty good raise from a single event.

To hell with Bilawal but if he can raise some more millions for the relief funds, make him do fundraisers everywhere.

Anyways, pity the nation which gives millions of their hard-earned money to mass murders like Hafiz Saeed and sponsor suicidal attacks on themselves. Pity the nation which conveniently ignores Yahya Khan for the Dhaka debacle. Pity the nation which loves barbarians and breachers of constitution like Zia. Pity the nation which gives guard of honour to looters and gate-crashers like Musharraf. Pity the nation which has no guts to oppose armed occupiers, looters, constitution breachers and mass-murders but celebrates kicking the sand-bag of someone who represents nothing more than our very own collective failures, weaknesses and apathy to towards communal progress.

I dont agree with you for Gen Zia ,who defeated Russian in Afghanistan and supported Dr Qadir Khan to make Pakistan 7th Nuke Power.

 

[Meengla]

You shoot yourself in the foot, and the PR machine fails when you show the world a helicopter taking you from your French chateau, surrounded by its perfectly manicured lawns, and on the other hand people in knee deep water desperately reaching out to a helicopter crying for aid.

As I said, he showed an immense lack of leadership, empathy and sympathy for his homeland and people, and we the people will remember that slap in the face for a long time to come. Hopefully he will come to regret it.

Agreed about the PR problem. PPP has never been good in PR and this is one more PR disaster.

Yet, as @SparklingWay quite powerfully points out right above me: 'Pity' the nation....That's exactly how I feel.
There are far more culpable culprits in Pakistan than Zardari and yet, despite the fact that Zardari's presence would not have made enough of a difference for flood relief while being in Pakistan at this time, there is a singular focus on Zardari. This is some kind of neurosis. A phobia of Zardari. There are all kinds of allegations of corruption going on and yet the anti-Zardari Supreme Court is not moved against him. WHY?!!

Get over this phobia and learn to recognize the collective failure which @SparklingWay points out toward.

Mine is not defence of Zardari per se but it is of defence of Pakistan's presidency. Defence of constitutionalism. After 2013 Zardari will most likely be booted out via democracy. I will probably celebrate that if that happens via legal means. And I don't that year is that far away.

Finally, I am going to stick my neck out and say: Zardari did the right thing by going to UK/France even at this time. His PR management is bad but his visit will be better for Pakistan than him being staying in his bunker of presidency.

 

[AstanoshKhan]

Zardari Shoecide Attack

BIRMINGHAM, England — A protestor threw a shoe at President Zardari in protest at his decision to visit UK despite PM Cameron’s insulting comments and the floods crisis in Pakistan. More information to follow on this, including video.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was to attend a rally here Saturday as protesters demonstrated against his presence in Britain during the flooding disaster back home.

Zardari was due to speak at a political event in Birmingham, central England, for Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) members and leading figures in the Pakistani community in Britain.

Hundreds of demonstrators from various standpoints gathered outside the International Convention Centre venue in Britain’s second city, chanting and waving placards.

It comes the day after Zardari held talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron, when the pair agreed to step up their anti-terror cooperation following Cameron’s controversial claims about Pakistani attitudes towards terrorism.

With the flooding disaster affecting up to 15 million people in Pakistan, Zardari has come under fire from some quarters in Pakistan and Britain for continuing with his trip to Europe during the crisis.

Some demonstrators held up shoes to pictures of Zardari, while others held placards reading “1000s dying, president is holidaying”, “Thousands killed, millions homeless, what president is laughing for?” and “Are the Zardaris enjoying England while Pakistan drowns?”.

Mohammed Khalil, a local official from the Tehreek-e-Insaf party headed by former Pakistan cricket captain Imran Khan, was among those protesting against Zardari.

“His own people are dying for food, there’s calamity there,” he told.

“He should be there organising for his own people. Instead he’s here with so many people. The government is paying all the expense for that. That money should be spent on the people of Pakistan, not on himself.”Taji Mustafa, from the Hizb-ut-Tahrir organisation, said Pakistanis were outraged.

“There is no self-respecting leader in the world who in this time of dire national crisis, while people are drowning, he is drowning in enjoyment, he is drowning having lavish dinners in the company of his die-hard supporters,” he said.

Wajid Ali Burkey, a PPP business forums coordinator in Britain, defended Zardari as he went into the event. “In the last 70 years we have not had such a disaster. But I don’t think the president being there or not being there would have made any difference,” he said. The demonstrators “have a right of opinion to believe he should not have come, but I personally believe it is very important.”

The PPP is co-chaired by Zardari and his son Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.

A PPP spokesman had said Bhutto Zardari would attend the Birmingham event and might speak at it but the 21-year-old on Saturday denied the rally was meant to launch his political career as he opened a donation point at the Pakistani High Commission in London.

The Oxford University history graduate vehemently defended his father’s visit to Europe. “He’s doing the best he can and what he thinks is best to help the people of Pakistan” he said.

One protestor threw a shoe at President Zardari during his address to the conventionin in protest at his decision to visit UK, despite PM Cameron’s insulting comments and the floods crisis in Pakistan.

 

[Kompromat]

He wasn't there as the President of Pakistan but as the Leader of PPP .

If he would have cared about Pakistan then he would have been helping our people not advertising his son and daughter abroad & not Licking the British @## which just has humiliated our whole Nation.

I would support the fellow who threw the shoe at him - Jazak Allah- at least he would know how much we hate him and his stupid face is not wanted in Pakistan.

 

[friendly_troll96]

@ baba g!

budhay waray v ishaq pya karna ain
painda hoyn ga jawani wich anher zalma!

 

[Aeon]

For argument's sake, I'll try to take a whack at defending Zardari.

Overall if you look at it (leniently ), the events or situations seem to balance themselves out more or less. Cameron goes to India (Pakistan's rival) to bolster business ties and accuses Pakistan of exporting terror. Zardari goes to France (UK's old rival) and tries to retort by attempting to bolster ties with France, looking for support for access to EU markets, about flood & aid needed, and more pointedly saying to a French magazine that US/UK/Nato are "losing war against terror in Afghanistan".

With this French visit in the bag as some sort of diplomatic tit-for-tat he goes to UK and meets Cameron. Surely it can't be an easy thing to go and meet and deal with the guy that just accused your country of exporting terrorism - no doubt it's gotta be uncomfortable to a certain extent even for him. Probably the best effect of meeting Cameron sooner rather than later is the release of psychological pressure and some reversal of damage to Pakistan's image by having Cameron say "friendship with Pakistan is unbreakable", again sooner rather than later. It might not be much but it must be something. Add to it the fact Cameron made no mention of Pakistan exporting terror when he was standing next to Zardari. That's gotta be a little plus as well.

The army is going to be much better at helping out with the flood crisis than he can anyway. PM Gilani is there to handle the internal affairs of state. ISI has rejected visiting UK which communicates the indignation, silently striking back by refusing cooperation for the time being. That leaves Zardari to deal externally in smoothing things over as he can I suppose. Since Pakistan doesn't have much diplomatic leverage in the international arena in the first place, maybe this is be best outcome that can be expected so far after all.

Now it would be interesting to compare the amount of money that got spent on the trip and the amount of money raised by Bilawal - how would those match up?

 

[forcetrip]

Apparently, Bilawal has raised 70,000 GBP for the National Disaster Management Fund. That turns out to be around 9.6 million PKR. Now, if the chattering ones would not post their usual will-go-into-swiss-account argument, around 10 million is a pretty good raise from a single event.

To hell with Bilawal but if he can raise some more millions for the relief funds, make him do fundraisers everywhere.

Anyways, pity the nation which gives millions of their hard-earned money to mass murders like Hafiz Saeed and sponsor suicidal attacks on themselves. Pity the nation which conveniently ignores Yahya Khan for the Dhaka debacle. Pity the nation which loves barbarians and breachers of constitution like Zia. Pity the nation which gives guard of honour to looters and gate-crashers like Musharraf. Pity the nation which has no guts to oppose armed occupiers, looters, constitution breachers and mass-murders but celebrates kicking the sand-bag of someone who represents nothing more than our very own collective failures, weaknesses and apathy to towards communal progress.

Pity the nation who does not have people who speak their mind. Pity the nation who has 10% of its population living abroad throwing shoes. A lot can be overcome with just Pity .. Keep it up ..

 

[sur]

Apparently, Bilawal has raised 70,000 GBP for the National Disaster Management Fund. That turns out to be around 9.6 million PKR. ...Anyways, pity the nation which gives millions of their hard-earned money to ....

-
Pity, the govt. which will never let Bilawal's not-so-hard-earned khairaat of 70,000 GBP reach the deserving... All that "john"s gave Bilawal will be soaked up by Bhutto-cum-Zardais & Co. & very little would trickle down to the deserving...

 

[Meengla]

The army is going to be much better at helping out with the flood crisis than he can anyway. PM Gilani is there to handle the internal affairs of state. ISI has rejected visiting UK which communicates the indignation, silently striking back by refusing cooperation for the time being. That leaves Zardari to deal externally in smoothing things over as he can I suppose. Since Pakistan doesn't have much diplomatic leverage in the international arena in the first place, maybe this is be best outcome that can be expected so far after all.

Thank you for putting some perspective to it. You did not have to be apologetic about it though.

PROVE all the charges against Zardari in a court of law. I am not going to deny Zardari taking 'kick backs' in the 90s; but I will also assert that Zardari gets too much focus while we ignore the corruption of many, many others since 1977. Minor industrialists became multi-billlionaires and yet they sit pretty relatively untouched.

By the way, 'corruption' comes not only in taking bribes/kickbacks, it also comes in ruining a nation's social fabric. Our dear Amir ul Mominoon Zia ul Haq was the 'patron saint' of hypocrisy in that kind of corruption.

 

[Awesome]

No amount of violence against the President of Pakistan is justified.

But Zardari is the sort who won't use this opportunity to introspect and realize how the Pakistanis actually view him. I don't know why he stormed out in anger, I would understand fear but its been said he was angry at the incident... was it really that shocking?

 

[razgriz19]

*sigh* so at the end of the day 10% punished media....................remember how they used to criticize mush when he banned media! they used to call him a dictator blah blaah!!!

now guess wat our DEMOCRATIC government has banned the media!

ARY's transmissions are forced to stop..

 

[forcetrip]

Goodluck Democracy.. I am rooting for you ..!!!

 

[fatman17]

u reap what u sow............

 

[anathema]

Jeez ..doesnt this Zardari guy have a sense of shame ? I mean he should have resigned by now ! ..