Hurling a shoe at someone is considered the ultimate disrespect in many cultures of the world, especially in the Arab world where it is deemed the worst of insults. That is why the first shoe-throwing incident took place in Middle East where Iraqi journalist Muntazir-Al-Zaidi threw a pair at the then US President, George. W. Bush when he was addressing a press conference. His aim was inaccurate although even a miss made the world headlines. Mr Muntazir-Al-Zaidi remained proud of his act even after he was sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting a foreign head of state during an official visit. Then the story was repeated all over again when a student hurled a shoe at visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Cambridge University Britain. The shoe missed Wen by a meter. Recently, a shoe was hurled at Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram too by a Sikh journalist. The availability of footages of all these incidents meant re-runs kept appearing on all channels. But the latest shoe-throwing incident involving President of Pakistan in Birmingham has no footage, at least none that is available. No person has been arrested or convicted. Only a section of the media, that is, Geo News and ARY News, have relayed the news. That, therefore, seems like a conspiracy against President of Pakistan. If they did not have a documentary proof of the incident available in the form of a video, these media groups should not have aired such an unauthentic news. The reaction of PPP activists in response was natural. GEO and ARY must review their professional conduct and should concentrate on reporting the natural calamity of floods rather than making up their own fake issues. -DR SAIFURREHMAN, Jamshoro, August 13.