Hours after a video of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lawmaker Dr Imran Ali Shah physically attacking a man in Karachi went viral on social media, the party on Tuesday issued a show-cause notice to the MPA, saying his actions were “unacceptable”.
The notice says that Shah should present his version "within 24 hours" otherwise he would be referred to the disciplinary committee for appropriate action.
The provincial lawmaker from Karachi's PS-129 constituency was caught on video slapping a man multiple times during a heated argument in the middle of a road in Karachi. The video that went viral showed that Dr Shah was accompanied by his armed guards, who also threatened the man.
After the video drew ire on social media, the PTI lawmaker released a video clarifying his stance regarding the incident. Dr Shah claimed that he was driving by when he saw a man "repeatedly hitting a poor man's car and stopped him".
Dr Shah said that he asked the man to "apologise to the poor man", adding that once people started dispersing "the man abused me and then pushed me".
The PTI lawmaker further claimed that he had only "pushed" the man; however, in the video it is visible that Dr Shah slapped the citizen multiple times.
Dr Shah's armed personal guards surrounded the man who was slapped and stopped him from following Dr Shah, who walked to his car and drove away.
In his clarification video, the PTI leader apologised for "hurting anyone's feelings", but remained adamant that he "could not stand back and watch 'injustice' take place like this".
Dr Shah further clarified that his car was not involved in any accident.
While talking to GeoTV later in the evening, Dr Shah repeated the contents of his video message, but could not properly answer host Shahzeb Khanzada's questions regarding the "unseen poor man" that the PTI leader claimed he was defending.
"The video is incomplete," Dr Shah claimed, adding that he had even "apologised to the man he had slapped".
To this, Khanzada pointed out that the available video evidence didn't support the lawmaker's claim, as he could be seen walking back to his car and driving away "right after slapping the man".
Shortly after the video went viral, PTI's Karachi wing president Dr Firdous Naqvi tweeted that he had seen the recording and was looking into the matter.
Dr Naqvi also said that Dr Shah has been issued a show-cause notice and he will "let everyone know of the future course of action".
Imran Ismail, the PTI's nominee for the post of Sindh governor, while talking to GeoTV said that party chief Imran Khan was "very upset" and "neither he [PTI chief] nor the party condones such behaviour".
