It reads like the title of a torrid daytime soap opera but it is the title of the script of the Pakistani political saga and how world leaders view the principal protagonists of this tortuous theatrical play.
Our president has been labelled dirty while the real opposition leader has been labelled dangerous. What other leaders think of Pakistani leaders matters very much so in the realm of international relations but these foreigners should not forget that whether dirty or dangerous, these people are the democratically elected leaders of Pakistan.
The fact that almost 90 percent of the world thought that Bush was a bumbling idiot and Clinton a lying philanderer did not affect their stature as the leaders of the free world.
Diplomacy is a dirty and dangerous games and requires saying stuff that you do not mean. What has been leaked is problematic but we must realise that it is decontextualised. These statements are more damaging to statecraft and diplomacy because they thrive on a certain level of hypocrisy. Otherwise, these leaks just aired what was on everybodys minds but not said on public forums.
ALINA RASHID
Lahore
