For all the downsides, gaffes, and controversy that surrounds any and every politician that has had a measurable amount of success in the field, there are few that try hard to actually acknowledge their blunders. Naturally none have widely been known to celebrate those of their actions that lead to broad condemnation. For the sake of politeness, these acts or statements are usually put down politely as ‘mistakes’ or slips of the tongue.
There is silver lining for IK, Tractor trolly & newly acquired dumper can b used for hauling political garbage..no additional effort/expense
— Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) June 12, 2017
Minister of Defence Khawaja Asif however seems to transcend these generally acknowledged boundaries. Not only did he seemingly expand on his notorious description of PTI stalwart Shireen Mizari as a ‘tractor trolley’ by calling the newly minted PTI member Firdous Ashiq Awan as a ‘dumper,’ he caps it off by doing so on the anniversary of the initial incident.
The initial incident took place in Ramzan last year on June 8 2016, and while the federal minister was delivering a speech on avoiding power outages at sehri and iftar times, he seems to have been feeling the heat of his roza as he couldn’t quite keep his cool:
Khawaja Asif’s tweets came out on June 12 this year, just a few days after the anniversary of the regrettable incident in the National Assembly. And while the minister had started off by criticising PTI chairman Imran Khan for the new additions made to his party by defectors such as Firdous Ashiq Awan, reading the tweets one can just feel that the first one was made solely with the intent of being able to make the next ill-humored statement.
While PM making history thru personal example..IK collecting political garbage,taking party to gutters..pretending recycling of incyclable
— Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) June 12, 2017
There is silver lining for IK, Tractor trolly & newly acquired dumper can b used for hauling political garbage..no additional effort/expense
— Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) June 12, 2017
And while it can be assumed that Khawaja Asif’s family and friends are particularly pleased with him since he probably never forgets birthdays and anniversaries, one does think about how selective this seemingly impressive memory cache is. The minister did, after all, issue an apology to Shireen Mizari the very next day. But he seems to have forgotten that bit. What is even more worrisome is that this is the same person that made this chilling threat on the basis of fake news:
The Israeli defence ministry had to sort the matter out quickly and assure Khawaja Asif that the threat he was responding to came from a fake news website that was simultaneously running the headline “Clinton is staging a Military coup against Trump.” And while the Defence minister might have understandably panicked due to the nature of the supposed situation, , he did later also forget to acknowledge that he understood nobody was planning a nuclear attack on Pakistan. Besides, twitter may not be the ideal place to offer threats of nuclear war.
The tweet was sent out on December 28 2016, so maybe it would be a good idea to keep reminding Khawaja Asif his threats had been made due to fake news, lest we face the trouble of facing down more threats of nuclear armageddon.
