Pakistani parliament reporter claims Finance Minister Ishaq Dar slapped him. Watch!

Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar recently lost his cool with a reporter and a video of the incident is now going viral. On Thursday, at the Pakistani Parliament House, the finance minister allegedly slapped a reporter for asking questions about the nation's stalled International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

Here's what happened: Ishaq Dar vs Journalist

As per Dawn, after addressing a National Assembly session, the Pakistani finance minister was departing the Parliament building when a reporter asked him some tough questions.

The reporter who has been identified as Shahid Qureshi has shared a video of the incident. In it, Dar can be seen going down the stairs when the journalist asks him "Dar sahib, will you talk today?" to which Dar replied, "I just came out (of the NA) after speaking so much."

Following that, the journalist enquired if the IMF deal was "happening" and then went on to refer to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's meeting with the IMF chief, which had taken place on the sidelines of a summit in Paris. However, Dar didn't respond and remained silent.

Watch the video here:

Qureshi, thereporterthen asked the reason for the Pakistani government's failure to secure the deal, to which the finance minister replied, "Because people like you are in the system."

Responding to the statement, the reporter then said: "we are not in the system" adding, "we just ask questions". By that time, Dar, who had reached the parking, turned around angrily towards Qureshi.

"What do you want?" he questions the journalist asking him to "fear the God".

Qureshi then asks the minister, "Why are you fighting, sir?". At this point, the minister’s security guards "intervened" reports Dawn, and the minister wasescorted towards the vehicle.

Reporter claims harassment

Later, Shahid Qureshi released a video in which he detailed the whole incident and made some damning claims against the Pakistani minister and his security detail.

He said: "Today, immediately after the finance minister exited the NA, I was standing there. As a reporter and journalist who covers the economy beat, I asked him why the agreement with the IMF had not been finalised yet".

"Initially, he (the minister) said he had spoken in the Parliament but I said I wanted to talk about the IMF … as soon I proceeded to question him, Ishaq Dar's security guards were told to stop me."

He goes on to claim that he was slapped by the minister and that he had recorded the entire incident.

"They grabbed me from both sides after which Ishaq Dar slapped me."

Qureshialleges that after that Dar left telling "his security officers to follow me and teach me a lesson…those officers followed me till I reached the second floor of the Parliament after which I went to the PRA office and have now reached the Press Gallery."

Parliamentary Reporters'Association (PRA) condemn the incident

Reportedly, the Pakistani Parliamentary Reporters Association (PRA) has since then issued a condemnation and said that a senior parliamentary reporter faced "violence by Ishaq Dar's guards". The statement labelled the incident "disrespectful behaviours" which they "strongly condemn".

The association, as per Dawn, has demanded that Dar apologise to the reporter. They also ask that there should not be a repeat of such "aggressive behaviour" by Dar. "If Dar does not apologises, the PRA reserves the right to walk out of the budget session and protest," read the statement. They also demanded that National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf take notice of the incident.

(With inputs from agencies)

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