The president of Pakistan Mr. Asif Ali Zardari met [1] with the US Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin in New York recently and used flirtatious words during the discussion. It seemed more like a courtship than a political meeting. Zardari made the following comments:
“You are even more gorgeous in life. . .”
“Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you”
When a photographer asked to shake hands for the second time, Zardari responded candidly:
“If he is insisting, I might hug. .”
Pakistani blogosphere has responded to this critically; some joked about it while others were furious at him. Let us have a look:
Altaf Khan at The Pakistani Spectator [2] writes:
Just after showing his intense mourning (with ashen face) of the assassination of his late wife Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari met the beauty Queen of Alaska and the Republican runner for the Vice President, and twice admired her stunning looks. Sexy and dazzling Palin was ecstatic, though now as she is being painted as a Barbie doll for the foreign presidents by the Democrats, there is another row to haggle upon for the political analysts. […]
Shakir Lakhani at Chowrangi [3] mentions that the president's behavior was against Islamic principles:
I wonder how the president of an Islamic Republic can even think of hugging a woman who is not closely related to him. But Mr. Zardari even said (that) he would hug her if his aide insisted (the aide had merely asked him to shake hands with her). […]
Dr. Awab Alvi at Teeth Maestro [4] notices:
It seems to have been the perfectly scripted conversation [4] as temporal had predicted well before the actual Sarah Palin and Asif Zardari meetup. There maybe some fanatics in Pakistan who may even cringe at seeing him shaking hands with a women, but whatever the objection and whether we like it or not it has become a routine in western interactions and I might even suggest that such flirtatious comments might even be the norm but I dare to say, at least not on camera. It is quite possible that Sarah Palin considered these as a complement, but if you were to observe the video footage of the exchange she does feel a little uneasy.
Adnan Siddiqi [5] was not courteous to Zardari in his words:
We must thank Zardari as he represented (the) Pakistani nation, especially Pakistani men in front of (the) Americans. Yesterday when Zardari met Sarah Palin then he could not control his emotions and showed all his teeth (not sure they are genuine since I heard they were pulled out when he was in jail) and expressed love in a typical (..) style which is common among Pakistani men. […]
During the whole meeting Zardari was not found mourning about BiBi [6] like he is used to mourn in every press conference in Pakistan.
On my own blog I depicted [7] the meeting and the flirtatious life of President Zardari in a humorous video [8]. Here is the video [9] of an original news report [ur].