A mobile video clip showing two high-profile Pakistani politicians being chased off a plane by furious passengers after the plane's takeoff was delayed for more than two hours has gone viral, ABC News reported.
The incident took place on Monday when Pakistan International Airline's flight PK 370 was waiting to take off from Karachi. After more than two hours of wait inside the aircraft for a "technical fault," a passenger was finally able to draw out the truth - the crew was expecting Rehman Malik of the Pakistan People's Party, a former Interior Minister, NDTV reported.
Determined not to allow Malik in the flight, a group of passengers positioned themselves at the entrance. "Tell him to catch a bus," sneered one passenger. "Is he god?" said another.
"We've taken this for too long," one passenger yelled at the flight crew, standing at the tunnel door that connected the plane to the Karachi airport terminal.
The first to arrive was Ramesh Vankwani, a member of the country's national assembly. When he admitted that he was a lawmaker of the ruling PML-N, the angry mob surrounded him, yelling at him and telling him to get off the plane.
"I was just sitting outside," he said. "They're waiting for someone else."
After he managed to push through the crowd to get to his seat, he eventually admitted that he was a government official. At that point, the angry crowd -- many of whom were recording the episode on their mobile phones -- started yelling, "Shame! You made us wait. Get out of the plane."
Eventually, Vankwani was forced to leave the plan.
The next to arrive was the country's former interior minister, Rehman Malik.
"Malik Saab, you should be ashamed of yourself. You should apologies. You kept 250 passengers waiting," a passenger shouted, rushing forward when the politician approached the plane.
"We have taken it for 68 years. No more!"
At first, Malik can be seen hovering at the aerobridge, trying to argue with the angry crowd that advanced on him, but when he notices the crowd with mobile phones blocking the entrance to the aircraft, he turns around and walks out.
"Close the gates and fly this plane to Islamabad. This should be recorded, Rehman Malik has been offloaded. We threw him out!" a passenger can be heard shouting.
Monday night's PIA flight from Karachi to Islamabad eventually took off without the two men.
Later that day, Malik took to Twitter to defend himself, insisting that he never caused the delay.
"The flt was announced to be delayed at 6pm till 8:30" he tweeted. "I suffered equally. I reached at 8:35. It is wrongly thought that delay was b/c of me."
Meanwhile, an official with Pakistan International Airlines told local Pakistani media the plane was delayed because of a technical fault and not because the crew was waiting for the arrival of the VIPs. The airline has suspended two of its Karachi-based managers as a result of the delay, according to ABC News.
