O presidente do Paquistão, Sr. Asif Ali Zardari, encontrou-se [En] recentemente em Nova York com Sarah Palin, candidata republicana à vice-presidência dos Estados Unidos da América, e usou palavras um bocado galanteadoras durante o encontro. Mais parecia que Zardari havia ido a um encontro romântico do que a uma reunião política formal. O presidente paquistanês disse coisas como:
“You are even more gorgeous in life. . .”
“Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you”
Agora eu sei porque a América inteira é louca por você”
Quando um fotógrafo os pediu para que apertassem as mãos por uma segunda vez, Zardari respondeu candidamente:
“If he is insisting, I might hug. .”
A blogosfera paquistanesa respondeu criticamente ao presidente galanteador. Alguns fizeram piadas a respeito, enquanto outros se mostraram furiosos com ele. Vamos dar uma olhada:
Altaf Khan, do blogue The Pakistani Spectator [En], escreveu:
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 do Chowrangi [En] menciona que o comportamento do presidente vai contra os princípios islâmicos:
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 do blogue Teeth Maestro [En] notou que:
It seems to have been the perfectly scripted conversation 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 [En] não foi cortês com Zardari em suas palavras:
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 like he is used to mourn in every press conference in Pakistan.
Durante todo o encontro, Zardari não foi visto chorando por BiBi, como ele costuma fazer em todas as entrevistas coletivas no Paquistão.”
Em meu próprio blogue, eu ilustrei [En] o encontro e a vida de galanteios do Presidente Zardari em um vídeo humorístico [En]. Aqui está o vídeo [Ur] de um noticiário original em Urdu sobre o encontro.