KARACHI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday suspended party membership of its member Sindh Assembly Dr Imran Shah for a month, for thrashing a citizen during traffic brawl in Karachi on August 14.
Party’s newly elected member National Assembly, Najeeb Haroon, confirmed that the membership of Mr Shah has been suspended for a month.
“Due to the seriousness of the matter, a suspension by the organization [PTI] is warranted for a period of one month with immediate effect. Final action will be based on the recommendations of the Disciplinary Committee,” he said.
PTI MPA Imran Shah drew strong backlash on the social media after video of him brutally thrashing a citizen went viral on popular websites like Facebook and Twitter. A lot of people online demanded suspension of membership of the party leader while some called upon the party to withdraw him as legislator from the provincial legislature.
The MPA was filmed slapping the man, identified as Dawood Chauhan, multiple times during a street altercation with his security guards around.
Shortly after the incident, the MPA had issued a video claiming that the man, whom he had beaten up, was misbehaving with another poor man on the street. “I got off my car and asked him what’s wrong, but he also hurled abuses on me and I just defended myself,” he had said.
But later he maintained silence on his first version and in a damage control, tendered apology to the citizen. Some other party leaders had reportedly taken Shah to Mr. Dawood’s residence to settle the issue.
After the video went viral, the PTI took notice of the incident and issued a show-cause notice to the MPA-elect. Senior party leader Firdous Naqvi had also tweeted that he had launched a probe. INP
