Shoe thrown at Zardari at British rally. Plus other Shoe victims

M.today

Birmingham, August 7:  Hundreds of protesters gathered to criticise President Asif Ali Zardari at a rally for British Pakistanis while millions struggled in the aftermath of floods back home.

Zardari defended his trip to Britain despite Pakistan’s worst-ever floods at an event for some 3,000 people in Birmingham, central England, including Pakistan Peoples  Party (PPP) members and leading figures in the British Pakistani community. 

          
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside the venue, some holding placards reading "1000s dying, president is holidaying" and "Are the Zardaris enjoying England while Pakistan drowns?"
        
And police said one man was escorted from the hall after a shoe was thrown at Zardari, while adding it did not land close to him. It has not yet been decided whether to press charges, a spokeswoman for the local force said.

Although journalists were barred from the event, a PPP spokesman told AFP afterwards that Zardari had defended his handling of the flooding and asked attendees to donate to the appeal to help victims.
         
"He was saying that the Prime Minister is the chief executive because he’s got all the powers, the Senate was in session, all the Chief Ministers were there, he was in touch with them over the phone," said Waheed Rasab, the PPP’s coordinator for Britain.
          
He added that although many people had not wanted Zardari to make the trip, the president had managed to build bridges with British Prime Minister David Cameron in a row over comments made on Pakistan’s handling of terrorism.
         
"There were many people who did not want him to clarify the misunderstanding of Mr Cameron," Rasab said.
         
"Now they have met, they have overcome the difficulties, he’s sorted that misunderstanding and it will not happen again".
         
Cameron triggered a diplomatic spat by suggesting that elements in Pakistan were promoting the "export of terror" during a recent visit to regional arch-rival India.
         
Some 15 million people have been affected by the catastrophic floods in Pakistan and the UN estimates that around 1,600 have been killed.
          
In Birmingham, 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 AFP.
          
"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."

Other Shoe Victims:

 

An angry man threw a boot at former Australian prime minister John Howard during a debate at Cambridge University on Thursday. A security guard picked up the shoe that was thrown towards the dignitary. No one ever imagined that "shoe-chucking" would be picked up as an action to get a instant popularity around the world.

 

It all started with an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoe at former US President George W Bush as a protest of American action against Iraqis; he also called Bush "a dog". Bush ducked and saved himself from getting hurt by just a whisker. Experimented first on Bush, later became a trend.

 

 Back home, this soon became a trend. Even before the Bush controversy ebbed, a shoe was thrown towards Home minister P Chidambaram by Dainik Jagran journalist Jarnail Singh. The Sikh journalist was infuriated when Chidambaran refused to talk further about the clean chit given by the CBI to the two main accused of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Jagdish Tytle and Sajjan Kumar.

Among the other ’shoe’ gate targets were BJP leader L K Advani and Congress MP Navin Jindal.Pawan Agarwal, a BJP worker, threw a slipper at Advani while a retired school principal, Rajpal, hurled his shoe while Jindal was addressing party workers.

Hurling shoes at politicians seem to have become a way of showing protest during the Lok Sabha elections held earlier this year. After Chidambaram and Advani, a man made an attempt to throw a shoe at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at an election rally in Ahmedabad. Luckily, the shoe fell short of the PM’s dais.