WASHINGTON: The offending word is "sonofabitch."
Pakistan has expelled three British reporters after a UK daily twice referred the country's military dictator Pervez Musharraf as a "sonofabitch," sparking off a yet another fervent debate about language, stylebook and the limits of editorial expression.
The comment, deemed offensive by the Pakistani government, appeared in a November 9 editorial in the Daily Telegraph innocuously headlined "Bankrupt Relationship."
"In the old parlance, General Pervez Musharraf is "our sonofabitch," the paper wrote. "He has failed to stamp out extremist groups and close the madrassas that inspire them. He has allowed the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to fall into the hands of assorted jihadis."
It then went on to add: "An alternative... seems neither imminent nor especially enticing. But that should not blind Britain and America to the fact that their "sonofabitch" in Pakistan is a spent force."
The "old parlance" the paper referred to appears to be an oft quoted remark attributed to various American leaders about their preference for some dictators -- "He's a bastard, but he's our bastard."
That quote has also been used by some columnists and bloggers to refer to the US' kidglove treatment of Musharraf compared to its hardline stand on leaders of Venezuela and Iran.
The quote is variously attributed to Presidents FDR, Truman, Nixon, and even strategic guru Henry Kissinger, and is believed to have originated in the context of US support to Nicaragua's Somoza line of dictatorship.
Some media stylebooks and manuals allow words such as bastard, but "sonofabitch" falls in the grey zone, partly because it is composite of words and does not even make the cut in some dictionaries.
The online Urban Dictionary lists four definitions for "sonofabitch" including one that reads: George W Bush, President of the USA.
In recent months, the media has struggled with words such as "F**K" and "S..T." Some American newspapers broke new ground by using the F-word when vice-president Cheney was heard telling a lawmaker to "go f*** yourself."
Pakistan though was in no doubt that "sonofabitch" breached the military regime's stylebook. "The language used for the President of Pakistan in your leading article ("Bankrupt relationship," November 9) is offensive and flouts the norms of decent journalism," Imran Gardezi, Minister Press, Pakistan High Commission, wrote to the paper. "For a newspaper of The Daily Telegraph's reputation to resort to such derogatory language is highly regrettable. This deserves an apology."
None was forthcoming.
Instead, bloggers unearthed other expletives Musharraf has been subjected to. He has been frequently called a "thug" by columnists, editorial writers and even by one law-maker. At a hearing last week, New York Congressman Gary Ackerman called him a "thug" who did not deserve American support.
Pakistani political discourse itself isn't pretty. Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in his book quotes Musharraf as saying (about him), "I will sort the bastard out."
But much more than personal abuse of Musharraf, Pakistan itself has also been shamed in the western press, variously described in recent months as "the most dangerous place on earth," "a terrorist grand central," "a failed state," and "disaster waiting to happen."
"Whether rattling nuclear rockets at a much more powerful India or allowing terrorist networks to use Pakistani territory to mount plots against Afghan, American and British targets, the country's leaders have raised political blackmail to a national and international art form," Washington Post's Jim Hoagland wrote in a column on Sunday, the latest in a series of withering commentary that has savaged Pakistan.
The column was headlined "Musharraf goes splat."
