PTI dissident Noor Alam and PPP leaders involved in fight with elderly at hotel in Islamabad

Published April 12, 2022
PTI dissident Noor Alam Khan (L) and PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar can be seen partaking in a brawl at a hotel in Islamabad on Tuesday. ⁠— DawnNewsTV
PTI dissident Noor Alam Khan (L) and PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar can be seen partaking in a brawl at a hotel in Islamabad on Tuesday. ⁠— DawnNewsTV

PTI dissident Noor Alam Khan and PPP leaders Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar, Faisal Karim Kundi and Nadeem Afzal Chan were involved in a fight with an unidentified elderly at a hotel in Islamabad on Tuesday.

Footage shared through various social media accounts showed Khokar and Co approaching the elderly amid a state of commotion in what appears to be a dining hall.

Kundi was seen picking up a glass from a nearby table and hurling its contents on the elderly, who responded in kind by throwing an object back at the PPP politician. As the elderly tried to grab onto something else to fling, Khokhar managed to closed in on him and delivered a punch to the head.

The elderly was thrown off balance and floored as PTI dissident Khan joined in and tried to grab hold of him before the two parties were separated.

It remains unclear how the scuffle started and who instigated it.

Later, Noor Alam called police and submitted a complaint describing his version of the events.

Noor Alam claims he was abused, threatened

In his handwritten complaint addressed to station house officer of Thana Secretariat, he said that he was at the hotel with his friends, including Khokhar, Chan, Kundi and Sheikh Waqas Akram when an unidentified man began abusing him and threatened to kill him.

The PTI MNA said that he ignored the threats at first but the man threatened him again at the time of Iftari, at which Khokhar tried to reason with him.

"The man did not stop and assaulted me and Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar with intent to kill, at which point we tried to stop him in our defence," he claimed.

Noor Alam complained that he had been misbehaved with by PTI workers in the past as well, of which there is a video available. He requested the police official to take action against "such miscreants".

The complaint was personally collected from the hotel by police officials.

PTI leaders condemn Noor Alam, others

PTI leaders condemned the incident, with Hammad Azhar saying the situation was not the same as it was being portrayed.

Ali Haider Zaidi questioned if the Supreme Court would take note of the issue.

Lawyer and activist Jibran Nasir said he empathised with politicians who get abused but condemned their "violent reactions". "Our political culture is toxic but [the] solution is compassion, not retaliation," he said.

Noor Alam Khan is one of several PTI dissidents who last month were found staying at the Sindh House in Islamabad and who had said they would vote against party chairman Imran Khan in the vote of no-confidence against him. In the end, he did not have to vote as the then-opposition managed to gather enough votes by itself.

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