Slightly improper

Like Liaquat, President Zardari had also declared that his first official visit will be to China but then went back on his words or was compelled somehow to visit the US first. The Chinese leaders, large-hearted as they are, must have felt slighted, just like the Soviets did six decades ago. Zardari could have sent his Prime Minister to New York for the empty speech to be made at UN and should have gone himself to Beijing. That would have been proper. The impact of that visit would have been quite favourable for Pakistan's friends and it would have conveyed a message of some meaning to Washington also. -MUHAMMAD ARSHAD NADEEM, Islamabad, via e-mail, September 28.