Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and Federal Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan has expressed his desire to become a “suicide bomber” and obliterate the enemies of Pakistan and Islam.
He was addressing a gathering in Rawalpindi’s constituency NA-59, Paryal area.
A clip from his speech has taken the internet by storm. In the video, he can be heard saying, “Suicide is haram, but I wish to be a bumbaar kush (suicide bomber).”
He adds that he wants to blow himself up at a place where all the enemies of the country and religion are gathered to obliterate all of them.
His comments drew strong responses on Twitter. Some condemned his remarks, while others reminded him of his “suicide attack” on the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) in 2020.
Sarwar in 2020 had declared that most of the PIA pilots were flying planes on fake licenses. This led to European Union banning Pakistani flights.
After the crash of PK8303 in Karachi, the minister, while speaking in the National Assembly, Sarwar had said that 262 out of 860 PIA pilots are suspected to have fake licenses, adding that 150 pilots have been sacked over it.
After his statement, Europe and the US banned the national carrier’s flight operations. PIA was also relegated to a one-star airline, the lowest rating out of a total of seven stars, by airlineratings.com.