Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was heckled at the Washington airport and was called a thif and a liar.
Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was in Washington for talks with international lenders. He was heckled at the airport and called thief and liar.
Pakistan Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar was heckled at the Washington airport and was called a thif and a liar.
Dar arrived in the United States to hold talks with international lending organisations in light of Pakistan's financial crisis. Considering its poor financials, the debt-ridden and flood-hit Pakistan is seeking debt repayment postponement and other relaxations from its international lenders.
Upon his arrival at the Dulles International Airport, Dar was called "chor" (thief) and a liar. The video of the heckling that surfaced on the internet, Mani Butt, the president of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party’s Virginia chapter, is seen responding to the heckler with a string of profanities.
A man can be heard shouting: "You’re a liar. You’re a chor."
In his retort, Dar says: "You’re a liar."
Butt calls the heckler "motherf****r" and said, "I will f**k you right here, motherf****r. Don't try to be smart. You don't me."
Butt went on to repeat the profanities multiple times before the video ended.
Dar, 72, recently took over as the finance minister of Pakistan from his predecessor Miftah Ismail. He is in the United States to attend the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Pakistan will seek new terms from international lenders after devastating floods hit the country.
The death toll from the cataclysmic floods in Pakistan was close to 1,700. It has also displaced over 33 million people and caused economic damages to the tune of $40 billion, fanning fears that the country may not be able to meet its debt obligations.
This is not the first time Pakistani ministers have been jeered at public places on their trips abroad and even within the country. Last month, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb was heckled at a coffee shop in London. She was called "chorni" (female thief) and "choro ki sardarni" (the chief of thiefs).
Earlier, Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal was harassed by supporters of former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party at a restaurant.
In April, a group of Pakistani pilgrims accosted, heckled and chanted slogans against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his entourage at the Masjid-i-Nabwi in Madina during their three-day visit to Saudi Arabia. Pakistani politicians and other religious figures had condemned the incident and some had even blamed the supporters of Khan's PTI party.
(With PTI inputs)