Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders staged a walk out from Friday’s Senate session to protest against one of their own member’s remarks made against Pashtuns on a private TV channel.
While the opposition members in the Senate also protested by exiting the meeting, PTI Senator Ejaz Chaudhry issued an apology to all members on Fawad Ch’s behalf. The former information minister, during an interview to a private TV channel, had reacted to former DG FIA Bashir Memon’s statement about being locked in a bathroom upon the orders of then-premier Imran Khan.
Fawad said: “He took a big risk going into the bathroom with a Pathan,” referring to then-principal secretary Azam Khan, who according to Memon’s revelation, had grabbed his hand and locked him in a bathroom after a conflicting interaction with Imran Khan. Fawad was widely criticized on social media, including by his own party leaders. Member of Provincial Assembly (MPA) from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan questioned “why, if these are his views about Pashtuns, is Fawad a member of a party whose leader is himself ethnically Pashtun”? He also demanded an apology from Fawad for hurting the sentiments of Pashtuns. Moreover, PTI leader Sher Ali Arbab appreciated the journalist, on whose show the remarks were made, for apologising on letting the “crude racial joke” slip, and urged Chaudhry to also “do the right thing and apologise.”
