Pope is second biggest loser in world: Report

Islamabad: Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who was forced by his opponents to accept the demand to reinstate sacked judges, has been listed the fifth biggest loser in the world by the prestigious ‘Foreign Policy’ magazine.

"Zardari was known to be a bad guy long before he became Pakistan's President. Many of the closest friends of his late wife Benazir Bhutto could not stand him. Now, as it turns out, neither can most of the Pakistani people," read the citation by the US-based magazine.

"Locked in a bitter struggle with Opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, Zardari showed his weakness by capitulating to demands to reinstate Pakistan's former Chief Justice as per Sharif's demands. Now in a desperate attempt to reassert control of his own party he may be plotting the ouster of his Prime Minister," it said in an article on the world's 13 biggest losers.

Zardari is ‘on the ropes, his opposition is gaining strength, and meanwhile fraught, dangerous, complex Pakistan is hardly being governed at all", the magazine said.

Foreign Policy listed 12 other leaders from this month's ‘headlines ranked by just how little sympathy we should have for them’.

The Pope was declared the second biggest loser because "he's out of touch with the real world and his papacy is 'a disaster'", the magazine wrote.

The magazine said: "If there's one thing you've got to love about tough times is: they're tough on everyone. These days, it's not easy even for those who have taken historically proven paths to amassing wealth, fame, power, social acceptance and happiness like becoming a billionaire or Pope or US Treasury secretary or an Austrian sadist."

Austrian businessman Josef Fritzl was among the losers for locking his daughter in the basement of his house and making her his sex slave.

Bernie Madoff, the US swindler who defrauded taxpayers of USD 60 billion, was also included in the list.

Others included on the Foreign Policy list are Edward Liddy, executive of US giant AIG (no 13); Forbes Billionaires List (no 12); Eliot Spitzer also of AIG (no 11); British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (no 10) and Israeli political Bibi Netahanyahu (no 9).