Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar censured Gilgit-Baltistan Tourism Minister Fida Hussain on Friday over his ‘misbehaviour’ with an Islamabad airport official after his flight was delayed on Nov 16.
Justice Nisar, who was heading a three-member bench of the apex court, summoned the Islamabad police chief, telling Hussain that a case would be registered against him.
“Did you push [the airport official]?” he questioned the minister. “Are you educated?”
The minister admitted that he had pushed the airport official.
“Were you in your senses at the time?” CJP Nisar asked, wondering how the minister had dared to interfere with official affairs.
The chief justice had taken notice of Fida Hussain’s alleged misbehaviour on Nov 16 after a video showing a man shoving an airport official went viral on social media.
The minister today admitted that he had pushed the official but it was not due to ill intentions. “I did push him, but there is a story behind it,” Hussain said.
“Is how one behaves when a flight is delayed?” Justice Ijazul Ahsan asked the minister.
In his remarks to the minister today, Justice Nisar observed that a poor man had been mocked.
Protests against delay at Islamabad Airport
A Gilgit-bound Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight PK-607 scheduled for 7am on Nov 16 was first delayed due to technical reasons and cancelled later that day due to bad weather.
Videos of an angry passenger protesting against the delay went viral on social media that day.
The passenger, reported by the videographer to be Hussain, set fire to his possessions in protest over the delay, including “an expensive jacket”.
When a fire extinguisher was brought to put the flames out, the passenger kicked it away in anger, as seen in the video.
Furthermore, when an airport security official approached him to address the matter, the passenger was seen holding his arms up and repeating: “Go bring handcuffs.”
In another video, the same man, reportedly the tourism minister, was seen arguing with a white-uniformed official.
“The weather is bad you say. The weather is bad for one flight and not the other?” he exclaimed incredulously before proceeding to ask the white-uniformed man his designation.
“I am the arrival in charge,” responded the man, introducing himself.
At this the vexed passenger’s annoyance turned to hostility, and he asked him to bring the manager of operations. He shoved the arrival in charge hard, which caused him to skid across the airport floor and stumble.
Later that day, the PIA spokesperson said CEO Air Marshal Arshad Malik talked to GB Law Minister Aurangzeb Khan, who was also going to travel on the flight, and told him that the flight had been cancelled due to bad weather.
He said the passengers were moved to hotels for the night and assured that a special flight would be operated for them on Nov 17.
