New Delhi: Pakistan’s political elite are redefining television debates. Screaming and shouting matches have evolved into all out physical brawls with opponents slapping and punching each other. Jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan seems to be the trigger. His lawyer Sher Afzal Khan Marwat and Pakistan Muslim League-N Senator Afnan Ullah Khan started attacking each other on the TV show Kal Tak, which is hosted by the hugely popular Javed Chaudhry on Express TV on Wednesday.
It all began with Afnan Ullah Khan abusing Imran Khan, calling him a ‘bootlicker’ who was working against the interests of Pakistan. The senator also accused former PM of holding talks with the military, and soon it devolved into personal attacks against each other and their families.
In front of the host, the audience and the crew, Marwat got up and hit the senator’s head. But Afnan retaliated by pushing and punching Marwat.
At first, Chaudhry tried to calm them down. But when his guests started rolling on the floor, he got up and the crew intervened. The clip showed crew members trying to break the fight.
Also read: ‘Pakistan’s Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’ is sick of being called that. Here’s why
Post-brawl drama
What followed was a war of words on X (previously Twitter).
Soon after the incident, Afnan Ullah posted the video saying that as ‘Nawaz Sharif’s soldier’ he practices non-violence, but the slap was an important lesson for Imran Khan’s supporters.
“Kahin shakal dikhane ka qaabil nahi rahenge. Badi badi kaali aenekein pehnni padegi (They won’t be able to show their faces anywhere and will have to wear big black glasses to hide themselves),” he wrote.
To this, Marwat responded by tweeting that he could not remain quiet while Imran Khan was being abused. Calling him not only a follower but a devotee of Khan, he wrote that ‘there was no option left’ and that he has no regrets.
“I responded in a way in which Pathans respond to abuses,” he tweeted.
That was not all. Marwat also said that he would file a defamation case against the show’s host, Javed Chaudhry, whom he called a ‘terrible liar’.
“Express TV host Javed Chaudhry is spreading misinformation about last night’s unpleasant incident. He is spreading rumours that my opponent was a Superman. He is not telling the reality which is that Afnan Ullah ran away from the studio and took shelter in a nearby room, which I came to know after watching his program today,” he wrote.
He also called Afnan Ullah a ‘barking dog’ and said that he knows how to silence him.
Amused citizens
Meanwhile, citizens are enjoying the spat. One X user said she was disappointed to see that none of the crew members could shoot the video in landscape mode. Another user
said that the Pakistani government was now taking lessons from Afnan Ullah on how to ‘upgrade a software’. Most Pakistanis commenting under the video with laughing emojis. One of them wrote, “Khush kardiya.” (This makes me so happy)
This is not the first time that politicians, lawyers and even journalists have engaged in physical altercations during live television broadcasts. In 2019, senior journalist Iftikhar Ahmad and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Masroor Ali Siyal brawled on live TV during a show hosted by journalist Nadeem Malik. In 2018, PTI leader Naeemul Haque smacked PML-N leader Daniyal Aziz. Javed Chaudhry had hosted this show as well.