A man threw two shoes towards President Asif Ali Zardari when the latter was delivering a speech at Pakistan People’s Party’s convention here on Saturday, an eyewitness said.
According to sources, President Zardari was addressing a gathering of PPP workers at a convention here when a man – apparently a PPP worker – stood up and threw something in direction of the President as he (the man) criticized the latter for the UK trip.
An eyewitness who was present at the convention said ‘the man threw two shoes one after another towards the President when he was giving speech.’ Security personnel present there sprung to action and took the man into custody and took him outside, the eyewitness added.
This led the President to stop his address and immediately leave the place in a security cordon in his car waiting for him outside.
However, Presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar rubbished the above report, saying there is no substance in it as he was himself present at the convention and no such incident took place during the President’s speech.
“I was sitting in the front row and I can confidently say that nobody threw anything,” Farhatullah Babar said while talking to Geo News.
On the other hand, Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira confirming the incident said that ‘highlighting a wrong act of a person would not be a right thing to do’ and added that the incident will be investigated.
President Zardari is presently in UK on a trip which was widely criticized due to his leaving the country at a time when people in Pakistan are facing unprecedented floods that has killed over 1000 people and displaced millions.
I see reports both denying and confirming this incident.
But this is very much possible. All kinds of people are present in a rally, and keeping in view the hatred many Pakistanis have towards Zardari, as is evident in this thread, some junooni may very well have done it.
And it's not just Zardari. It can happen to anyone. Just like an assassination attempt. But what it does is to give the people a reason to make fun of the person.
Also reported in dawn. Shoe-throwing story is perhaps an exaggeration but Zardari was heckled for sure
Protestors heckled President Zardari during British rally A demonstrator holds a shoe up to a manipulated photograph of President Zardari of Pakistan outside of the International Convention Centre in central Birmingham on August 7, 2010 as Zardari speaks to supporters during a visit to England. President Zardari has faced criticism for leaving Pakistan to promote his son’s political campaign while the country faces a national crisis due to severe flooding.
good one.
