Talk:Pakistani President met with protest on fifth day of UK tour

Original Reporting Notes

I can be contacted for further information on my OR and verification either on my talk page or at the email address 'firelytespyre@gmail.com'.

I heard from a friend that a central part of the city where I live, Birmingham, England, had been cordoned off with barriers because the Pakistani president was visiting. Because I had recently been working on the Floods in Pakistan worsen article I knew that he had been under criticism for continuing his tour while his country was experiencing this crisis.

I decided to go to this part of Birmingham, the International Convention Centre (ICC), the next day and take some photographs of the barriers and police. I would then write a story based on the related short. The piece would be on the criticism he had faced because of his continuation of the tour. I thought I might be lucky enough to get some good photographs of the cordoned off area.

When I arrived on the scene today I was greeted with much more than police and a cordoned off ICC. There was a hundreds-strong protest in full swing with many different banners and placards, a massive police presence and loud and rhythmic chanting.

I noted down the following placards:

• "Zardari king of theives"
• "Shame Shame Shame"
• "Save Pakistan from American terror and Zardari"
• "Mr. 10%"
• "Stop killing innocent Christians, repeal blasphemy law 295 B and 295 A"
• "Stop America's war that makes Muslim kill Muslim"
• "Zardari: king of corruption - friend of west"
• "10% idiot"
• "100% pure corruption"
• "While Pakistan floods Zadradi enjoys" (written on a huge banner, one of the biggest I saw, black capital letting on bright orange background)
• "Thousands dying (new line) President is holidaying"

Most of these placards were in capital lettering and printed on white or orange signs. The event appeared to have been organised by something called the 'PTI'. I believe this because I saw a few people, no more than four men, with badges saying "PTI organiser". Two of these had ribbons as well.

I stayed at the protest from when I arrived at about 2:15 in the afternoon until when it ended at 4:25. The protest looked like it had been going on for at least an hour when I arrived.

The atmosphere was full of a feeling of nationalism and the demonstrators possessed a will to make their voices heard that caught the attention of everyone that passed by. There was chanting that was call-response. The call went out from a microphone that was linked to speakers. There were also numerous megaphones possessed by different protesters. The chanting was rhythmic, repetitive and quite effective at grabbing and holding attention. I noticed many people stopped to listen and watch the protest, colourful because of all the orange, white and green banners and placards.

I will link soon to my flickr account where there should be 140 pictures and two videos of the event.

This should be the link to my flickr account. I have not yet managed to upload the two videos. FireLyte--spyre (talk) 19:58, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

Just for the sake of record, 'PTI' is an acronym for the w:Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, the political party led by former cricketing ace w:Imran Khan. Rana (talk) 16:07, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

Wikilinking

"Pakistan is experiencing the worst flooding in eighty years..." will be wikilinked to Spreading floods in Pakistan worsen, at least 1600 dead, as soon as that article is published. FireLyte--spyre (talk) 23:31, 7 August 2010 (UTC)

This has been done.

Edits

Not entirely happy with this. It could be published as an article, providing it passes review of course, and I have tried to keep it neutral, but I think it may wander in the last paragraph. I will try to bring it back on topic FireLyte--spyre (talk) 01:25, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

I cannot come up with better last paragraph. Possibly because of the time. I will put this up for review and edit it tomorrow. FireLyte--spyre (talk) 01:27, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

After looking it over I think the last paragraph works. If any other editors disagree feel free to either tell me to change it or change it personally. FireLyte--spyre (talk) 10:41, 8 August 2010 (UTC)

Review

Copyright, NPOV, newsworthiness, style reviewed. Article passed my review. Diego Grez (alternate account) ^{alt. talk} 00:40, 9 August 2010 (UTC)

Edit

{{editprotected}}

Category:Asif Ali Zardari , thanks Rana (talk) 16:07, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

Done --Pi zero (talk) 16:33, 18 September 2010 (UTC)