(Asian News Hub) – Pakistan’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, who remains in news for his weird statements, has once again made it to the headlines after he said that tear gas was fired on government employees to ‘test it’.
The Pakistan police had on February 10 fired tear gas at government employees who were protesting to demand an increase in their salaries and pensions.
During an event in Rawalpindi, the minister said that the Islamabad police “fired a little tear gas”, and it was necessary to test it since the tear gas canisters had been unused for a long time, Dawn reported.
“Only a little was tested, not a lot,” he claimed.
Rashid, who was part of the government committee, said that the “real problem” was not the tear gas shelling but the pay raise that “amounts to billions of rupees in this time of inflation [and is a burden on the] treasury”, Dawn reported.
The Interior Minister minister has received a lot of backlash for the remarks.
“In any other country, a statement like this would mean immediate firing of the minister and an apology from the government,” said PML-N leader Mohammad Zubair.
“To the fascist, douchebag interior minister Sheikh Rasheed, people suffocating to death is a joke,” tweeted filmmaker Haroon Riaz.
According to a report by Samaa TV, at least 2,000 people had gathered and planned to march towards Parliament House when the police fired tear gas to stop them.
Earlier, the federal ministers, including Rasheed, have said the government will fulfill demands of the protestors.
However, the protesters have reiterated that the government will have to issue a notification confirming the increase in their salaries. (With ANI Inputs)
