New Delhi

Pakistan’s former army chief (retrd) General Qamar Javed Bajwa was heckled when he was on a holiday trip with his wife in France. Though the identity of the man who hurled expletives at the couple is unknown, Pakistani media reported that it was a man from Afghanistan.

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In the clip, which went viral on social media, a man can be heard verbally abusing Bajwa and his wife in his native Pashto language (widely spoken in Afghanistan) as they sit on the stairs in Annecy.

Bajwa responded by warning him to hand him over to the police, but the man didn’t budge and continued to insult him.

According to the translation provided by the media, the man was blaming the Pakistan Army of human rights violations, misconduct and aiding the Taliban in destroying Afghanistan.

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The authenticity of the video could not be corroborated by WION.

Bajwa had stepped down in 2022

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The head of Pakistan’s most powerful institution, Bajwa, stepped down as the army chief in November last year.

He took charge of the 600,000-strong army for three years in November 2016, and then his service was extended in August 2019 by then-prime minister Imran Khan.

However, a schism developed between the two in 2021 after differences over a key military appointment.

It is widely believed that Bajwa helped Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party win the 2018 general elections and made Khan the prime minister, paving the way for the establishment so-called “hybrid-regime”, which refers to a hybrid civilian-military administration, with a democratically installed leader propped up by the army.

In his farewell speech, Bajwa had acknowledged that the military meddled in political matters for which it has been severely criticised.

“In my opinion, the reason for this is the constant meddling by the army in politics for the last 70 years, which is unconstitutional,” he said.

“That is why, since February last year, the military has decided they will not interfere in any political matter.”

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