Panjutha, Ikhtiar Wali’s heated fight on live TV

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Naeem Haider Panjutha and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Ikhtiar Wali Khan fought during a live television debate on Bol TV.

During the heated debate, Panjutha said that former prime minister Imran Khan had never fled the country, unlike PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif.

When Panjutha called Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz an “illegitimate ruler,” the argument between the two intensified. Wali demanded evidence before he rushed forward and seized Panjutha by the collar.

While Fizza Akbar, the host of the show, constantly urged both to calm down, the two got into a physical altercation in the studio.

The heated argument escalated into a full-fledged brawl despite the efforts of other program attendees to step in and defuse the situation.

Heated debates and clashes between political leaders are not uncommon in Pakistan. They indulged in physical fights on more than one occasion, whether in parliament or on television.

The most-recent episodes of such fights happened on September 2023 when PTI’s Sher Afzal Marwat and PML-N’s Senator Afnan Ullah engaged in physical fight after exchanging hot words during a private TV show. 

Initially, both leaders exchanged harsh words, then started pushing each other, and eventually resorted to slapping and punching. The clash became so intense that they ended up on the floor, grappling and throwing punches on each other. The TV staff had to stepped in to separate the two. 

In a similar incident in 2021, Firdous Ashiq Awan — who is currently out of the political screen after leaving PTI to join Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party — slapped a member of the National Assembly.

She was sharing set with Pakistan People’s Party leader and MNA Qadir Khan Mandokhail during the Javed Choudhury’s talk show.

Politicians are not just notorious for engaging in physical fights with members of their fraternity, but they often assault journalists, policemen, lawyers, and government employees.

Awan had slapped a policeman at Norowal during the Feb 08 general elections polling.