Changing Pakistan: Tardy MPs thrown off jet

September 17, 2014

Islamabad, Sep 17: Angry Pakistani passengers have forced two lawmakers off a plane for delaying its departure by almost two hours. A video covering the drama was posted online.

Irate passengers decided to take matters into their own hands this time — aiming a string of invective toward the country's former Interior Minister Rehman Malik and later toward Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, a Hindu member of the ruling PML-N party. In one of the videos, the passengers can be seen waiting at the door of the plane for Malik. As he walks down the jetway, a man shouts: “Malik saheb (Sir) you should go back. You should apologize to these passengers. You should be ashamed of yourself! 150 passengers have been put out because of you.”

Another man can be heard saying: “We've taken it for 68 years. Are we going to take it another 68?” referring to the country's age.

The embarrassed politician later turned back. Vankwani left the flight after passengers threatened to beat him with shoes. Many Pakistanis on Twitter hailed the event as a rare example of ordinary people standing up to the powerful.

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In meeting with Zohran Mamdani, Trump repeats claim he stopped India-Pak war

Agencies

November 22,2025

New York/Washington: US President Donald Trump has again claimed to have solved the conflict between India and Pakistan, repeating his assertion during a meeting with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in the Oval Office.

Mamdani flew to Washington DC for his first meeting with Trump in the White House on Friday. Trump said he “enjoyed” the meeting, which he described as “great.”

During remarks in the Oval Office, with Mamdani standing next to him, Trump repeated his claim that he solved the May conflict between India and Pakistan.

"I did eight peace deals of countries, including India and Pakistan,” he said.

On Wednesday, Trump had said he threatened to put 350 per cent tariffs on India and Pakistan if they did not end their conflict, repeating his claim that he solved the fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbours and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called him to say “we're not going to go to war.”

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after a “long night” of talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim over 60 times that he “helped settle” the tensions between India and Pakistan.

India has consistently denied any third-party intervention. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the April 22 Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians. India and Pakistan reached an understanding on May 10 to end the conflict after four days of intense cross-border drone and missile strikes.

Mamdani emerged victorious in the closely-watched battle for New York City Mayor, becoming the first South Asian and Muslim to be elected to sit at the helm of the largest city in the US.

He had been the front-runner in the NYC Mayoral election for months and defeated Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and political heavyweight former New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent candidate and was officially endorsed by Trump just hours before the elections.

Indian-descent Mamdani is the son of renowned filmmaker Mira Nair and Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani. He was born and raised in Kampala, Uganda and moved to New York City with his family when he was 7. Mamdani became a naturalised US citizen only recently, in 2018.

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