Fawad gets flak from netizens for racist remarks

KARACHI: In a flurry of outraged tweets, PTI leader and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry has been widely condemned on social media for his racist remarks targeting the Pashtuns while appearing in a TV interview.

Reacting to Chaudhry’s remarks, PTI leader and member of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Dr Hisham Inamullah Khan has asked him to apologise to the Pashtun nation for his remarks.

In a strongly-worded tweet, Dr Hisham said that if Fawad Chaudhry held such views regarding Pashtuns — views which Dr Hisham said smack of disrespect for the entire Pashtun nation — then why was he even part of a party whose leader is ethnically Pashtun and whose party has been largely made successful by the support of Pashtuns?

Fawad Chaudhry had been asked a question by the show’s host about former FIA director-general Bashir Memon’s claim of having been locked in a bathroom on Imran Khan’s order when the latter was the prime minister. On being pressed regarding the matter, Chaudhry had responded with a racist jibe: “[Memon] took a big risk by agreeing to go to the bathroom with a Pathan,” referring to former principal secretary Azam Khan’s going to the bathroom reportedly to talk to Memon.

Shortly after the show’s clip went viral, Pakistani Twitter responded with outrage, criticising Fawad Chaudhry’s unsavory insinuation about Pashtuns. ANP’s Aimal Wali Khan said that he was “ridiculing the Pashtun nation live on national television, and the host, @Kashifabbasiary, smiled. It is unfortunate to see this behaviour towards our nation.”

Aimal Wali also asked the Pashtuns to boycott the channel until an apology was aired. On Thursday, the host of the show on which Fawad Chaudhry had made these remarks, Kashif Abbasi, apologised on air, saying he did not mean to cause grievance to any community. Meanwhile, Pemra too has taken notice of the issue and issued a show-cause notice to ARY News over Chaudhry’s remarks.

Mohsin Dawar, elected from North Waziristan, also took to Twitter to lodge his protest at the remarks given by Chaudhry, and pointed out that this was not a one-off incident but a systemic issue.

“Fawad Chaudhry’s racist statement and Kashif Abbasi’s racist giggle [explain the] mainstream’s attitude towards the Pashtun periphery. When ethnicities are reduced to mere caricatures, then denying them of their rights becomes very easy.”

The same sentiment was echoed by activist Usama Khilji, who called it “disgusting racism against Pashtuns”, reminding the PTI that a “leadership that relies on [the] votes of Pashtuns for power needs to take action against Fawad’s sick excuse of humour that stereotypes Pashtuns on TV”.

Senior journalist Saleem Safi asked — via social media — Pervez Khattak, Asad Qaiser, Shah Farman, Ali Mohammad Khan, Murad Saeed, Mahmood Khan, Shibli Faraz and especially Sahibzada Noorul Haq Qadri — whether they agreed with such remarks regarding Pashtuns — adding that “The silence of the Pakhtuns on this racist and insulting remark” was shameful.

The incident has also been raised in the KP Assembly, with PPP MPA Nighat Orakzai submitting a resolution in the KP Assembly Secretariat, condemning the remarks passed by Fawad Chaudhry.

On journalist Adil Shahzeb’s tweet asking PTI members to condemn Fawad Chaudhry’s “completely uncalled for remarks and stereotyping of Pashtuns on national TV”, PTI’s Taimur Jhagra responded with: “No question about it, strongly condemned” and then followed that up by asking the journalist whether he had “condemned the financial crisis that the PDM government has created,” leading to a volley of tweets back and forth.

Responding to Jhagra’s tweet, ANP’s Samar Haroon Bilour asked him to “make [Chaudhry] apologise and then sit like a civilised person to discuss your issue.”

PTI’s Sher Ali Arbab, however, volunteered an unequivocal condemnation of Chaudhry’s remarks, asking him to apologise and appreciating the show’s host for tendering an unconditional apology. Meanwhile, Fawad Chaudhry is yet to comment on this incident.