Pakistan Peoples Party leader Nabil Ahmed Gabol has issued a clarification claiming that he was acting in self-defense when he pushed a passenger to the ground at the Karachi Airport, after a video of the incident surfaced on Sunday.
Gabol claimed he was trying to protect himself from the assault of a drunken fellow passenger. The video of the incident, which went viral on social media, shows the PPP leader forcibly pushing a man to the ground at the arrival lounge of the Jinnah Terminal of Karachi Airport and verbally abusing him.
The video clip is reportedly from the late night hours between Saturday and Sunday when Gabol arrived in Karachi from Dubai. In a video message after the assault video went viral, Gabol claimed that the unidentified passenger, allegedly under the influence of alcohol, travelled with him in the same airplane from Dubai.
He claimed that upon seeing him at the Dubai airport, the fellow passenger had started using foul language against all Pakistani politicians. Gabol added that he advised the fellow passenger to refrain from doing so keeping in view the cause of national dignity and prestige especially when a Pakistani was present on foreign soil.
He further said that the passenger didn’t pay attention to his advice, while during the journey he also misbehaved with the air-hostess. According to Gabol, once they landed in Karachi and he reached the arrival lounge of Jinnah Terminal, the passenger rushed towards him. “Sensing danger I pushed him to the ground in self-defence and he fell to the ground after hitting a nearby luggage trolley,” said Gabol. “It was not me heard verbally abusing in the video clip. It was the other passenger who was using the foul language.”
The PPP leader alleged that the fellow passenger belonged to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf as the followers and activists of PTI had been showing such rowdy behaviour while promoting the culture of political intolerance in the society.
He said that the leadership of the PTI would one day face the dire consequences of promoting a culture of political hatred and intolerance against their opponents. Gabol demanded the government and law-enforcement agencies to arrest the drunken fellow passenger whose unruly behaviour had created an undesirable situation both at Karachi and Dubai airports.