Pakistan: Passengers Force Ex-Minister Rehman Malik Off Plane

Former Interior Minister Rehman Malik had to find another way to get to Islamabad

A group of irate passengers prevented a top Pakistani politician from boarding a flight, after they were kept on board for two hours until he arrived.

It is not clear why former Interior Minister Rehman Malik and another politician were so late to turn up.

But the passengers were so incensed a scheduled flight was kept waiting for the politicians, they forced them back.

Mr Malik was confronted by jeering passengers who shout: “You should be ashamed of yourself”. (watch video; http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x260xj5_rehman-malik-thrown-off-flight-by-passengers-keeping-it-delayed_fun)

“150 passengers have been put out because of you,” they continued, demanding an apology and bemoaning the state of the nation.

“We’ve taken it for 68 years. Are we going to take it another 68?” one is heard saying in despair.

The other politician, Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a member of the ruling PML-N party, was also turned back by passengers.

Monday night’s Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight from Karachi to Islamabad eventually took off without the two men.

Mr Malik, who blamed the delay on PIA on his Twitter feed, appears to remonstrate but his comments are barely audible as they are drowned out by the furious passengers.

BBC

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