THE list on the internet says it was Pakistan which began the trend, reviving a way of showing disapproval that dates almost to the time when man first learnt to take aim. Six Aprils ago, Arbab Rahim, a former Sindh chief minister, was attacked with a shoe as he came to take oath as a member of the provincial assembly.

For the attacker, democracy which had brought his party to power was not revenge enough. Since then, shoes have been lobbed at various venues around the globe, and this manner of ugly protest was, on Thursday, once more visible when the chief minister of Punjab found himself at the receiving end. In between, a Chinese leader has been subject to a limp shoe attack — in Cambridge of all places.

The then US president George Bush, too, has been targeted in Iraq, and only recently former secretary of state Hillary Clinton managed to duck one in the US. In India, politicians such as Manmohan Singh and L.K. Advani have been aimed at and our very own Gen Pervez Musharraf has been a recipient both in his country and abroad. The Iraqi who threw the shoe at Mr Bush was paid in the same coin in Paris later.

The reaction, generally, has been sober. In a majority of cases, the targeted leaders chose to take these attacks in their stride, avoiding additional embarrassment. Some damage was, of course, done, but the incidents did provide the leaders with an opportunity to be magnanimous and forgiving.

Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif reacted similarly on Thursday when he ordered the release of the shoe-throwing journalist, who, it was learnt to the general satisfaction of the surprised gallery, had his origins away from Punjab.

This was the right response. It allowed for the freak incident’s quick removal from the media radar, after the efficient security and agitated party workers had done their best to make a prolonged unpleasant spectacle out of it by thrashing the offender.