Islamabad: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was recently incensed by a parliament reporter asking questions about the current situation in the country and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) program. The video of the Finance Minister getting into a fight with a reporter on live camera is going viral. The reporter allegedly told me that the minister slapped me and he also ordered his security personnel to teach me a lesson.
According to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was leaving after addressing the National Assembly session, when a journalist named Shahid Qureshi asked him difficult questions, on which the minister got angry. He started moving forward without answering. The journalist asked whether the deal is being done with the IMF. Then he also mentioned Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with the IMF chief. However, Dar did not respond and remained silent.
After that the reporter questioned the failure of the government’s deal with the IMF, the minister replied, ‘Because people like you are in the system.’ Then the reporter said, ‘We are not in the system.’ After that Dar angrily scolded the journalist. Turn around and say something. Journalists say ‘fear of God’ to him. Qureshi then asks the minister, ‘Why are you fighting sir?’ At this point, the minister’s security guards “intervene” and the minister was taken towards the vehicle, Dawn reported.
After the incident, the journalist released a video of the incident claiming harassment by the minister. Shahid Qureshi has made dangerous claims about the Pakistani minister and his security guard. He told that when asking questions related to the economy, I asked, ‘Why the agreement with the IMF has not been finalized yet.’ The minister got angry about this and said that I have given the answer in the Parliament. He kept shying away from saying anything. On putting more pressure, he got angry and he slapped me.
