F.P. Report
KARACHI: PPP MNA Qadir Khan Mandokhail on Thursday raised the issue of his physical altercation by Special Assistant to the Punjab Chief Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan in the parliament.
He said all the parliamentarians were ashamed of the behavior of Firdous Ashiq Awan. He said Ms Ashiq attacked a parliamentarian, calling it the result of training given by Imran Khan. He also issued a video statement in this regard, saying Firdous Ashiq attacked in a TV programme when he reminded her about the corruption. He said now she was talking about moving to the court. He said he also reserved the right to go to court. However, he said if she would ask for his forgiveness, he would forgive her.
The incident occurred when the two appeared on a talk show on a private TV channel. The discussion about the government’s performance and excessive load-shedding in parts of the country turned into a shouting match between the two over the recent train incident. Things started to become heated when the PPP leader mentioned Awan’s comments about the train tragedy; in a press conference shortly after, she had allegedly said that “by the Grace of God” this was the first train accident during the PTI’s rule.
However, the situation escalated when Mandokhail brought up the corruption allegations against Awan. In the video which went viral, the PPP leader tries to grab her arm to defend himself. However, other people present on the set quickly intervene before the situation escalates.
In response to the backlash, Awan took to Twitter to defend her actions. In her video statement, she said the picture being painted about the argument with Mandokhail highlighted only one side of the story. She demanded the release of the full video.
Firdous Ashiq Awan also started legal action against Mandokhail after consultation with her lawyers. She said he would get the legal notice soon. She said she wanted that the use of abusive language against women should be stopped.
