Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s new Finance Minister, was heckled by some Pakistanis living in the USA upon his arrival at the airport in Washington D.C. on Thursday, October 13. The outraged crowd began jeering at him and yelling “chor! chor!” and “thief!” at the airport after he landed in the US capital, resulting in an abusive altercation between the crowd and the minister and his aides.
The minister is on a trip to the USA to attend the annual meetings of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The PMLA minister was accompanied by Pakistan’s Ambassador to US Masood Khan, the State Bank governor, the finance secretary, and other ministers and officials.
In the video of the incident which has now gone viral on social media shows, Ishaq Dar is seen being greeted with ‘chor chor’ as he walks towards the airport’s exit. In his retort, Dar said, “You’re a liar.” The minister, who looked visibly irked asked the people mocking him to shut up. He then started walking away, when a person from the crowd again calls him a ‘liar’.
At this point, another man, seemingly a member of Dar’s entourage, could be seen exchanging profanities with the hecklers.
“Hey, shut your mouth. Don’t shout. I’ll f**k you right here you mother f**ker..you don’t know me..you mother f**k*r, don’t try to be a smart a**.. f**k yourself,” yelled the Pakistan minister’s aide in retaliation.
لندن میں تو یہ معمول ہے۔ یہ تو امریکہ میں بھی وہی ہورہا ہے۔ pic.twitter.com/Z34WSxDr5G
— Ihtisham Ul Haq (@iihtishamm) October 13, 2022
This is, however, not the first time a Pakistani minister has been jeered in public while travelling overseas or within the country. Marriyum Aurangzeb, the Information Minister, was heckled at a coffee shop in London last month. Earlier, PTI supporters harassed Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal in a restaurant.
During a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia in April, a group of Pakistani pilgrims assaulted, heckled, and yelled slogans against PM Shehbaz and his entourage at the Masjid-i-Nabwi in Madina.
