ISLAMABAD: Member of the Sindh Assembly Imran Ali Shah on Monday sought pardon from the Supreme Court which had taken suo motu notice of a video showing him slap a citizen in the middle of a road near the National Stadium in Karachi on Aug 14.

Mr Shah was elected from PS-129, Karachi, in the recent general elections on a ticket of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI).

Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar had taken notice of the incident which required Mr Shah to furnish his reply within three days.

“It is humbly submitted that reply of the answering respondent (Imran Ali Shah) be accepted and he may please be pardoned and exonerated,” said a reply moved by Mr Shah while tendering an unconditional apology.

The notice was taken after a video showed Imran Shah slapping Dawood Chauhan multiple times during a heated argument. The video also showed the MPA, along with his armed guards, threatening Mr Chauhan.

The video went viral on social media followed by an announcement by PTI’s Sindh president Firdaus Shamim Naqvi that Mr Shah’s membership will remain suspended until the disciplinary review committee of the party takes a final decision.

In his reply, Mr Shah claimed that he had no intention to assault or use criminal force against anyone and that in the manner he acted on that day was to exercise the right of self-defence.

Expressing his regrets, the MPA said that while driving his vehicle near the National Stadium he saw a car with an official number plate hitting repeatedly another car parked at the roadside in which a person was also sitting.

Apprehending that the driver of the car had intentions to hit the parked car either to hurt or kill the individual inside it, Mr Shah said, he came out of his car to save the human life and to prevent further damage of the victim’s car.

Mr Shah said the driver of the car was in rage and was even abusive. He said since he was not prepared to hear the filthy language, he approached the car driver to stop him from abusing, but the latter started misbehaving. The MPA said the car driver’s attitude became intolerable to such an extent that he was left with no option but to defend himself and use force to counter the attack towards him.

Mr Shah claimed that the incident was so sudden and the fear so obvious that he could not act patiently.

Later, he along with Mr Naqvi visited the house of Mr Chauhan to apologise for his assault and admitted that the act was unintentional, sudden and in self-defence. Mr Chauhan graciously accepted his apology and the matter was resolved, the MPA claimed.

Mr Shah said the owner of the car, which was hit by Mr Chauhan, would endorse that he came to his rescue to save him. He said he came to the help of a person with whom he had no acquaintance at all.

The MPA, however, regretted that the video that went viral on social media was only focused on him and as such the reaction of Mr Chauhan was neither captured nor aired to portray a complete picture.

He said the incident later came to an amicable situation and did not warrant any cognisance.

Mr Shah claimed that he belonged to a respectable family, was a law-abiding citizen and an orthopaedic surgeon by profession. His father, Dr Mohammad Ali Shah, was a luminary in the field of sports who also represented the country in Olympics and other international events.

Mr Shah said he already had surrendered his British passport as well as a permanent job at East Surrey Hospital in the UK.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2018