Rallying cry: Hecklers leave Hamza Shahbaz red-faced in Alhamra

He was forced to cut short his speech and leave

Dozens of hecklers forced federal lawmaker Hamza Shahbaz, son of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, to cut short his speech at a World Tourism Day event at the Alhamra hall on Saturday.

They kept chanting ‘Go Nawaz Go’, the rallying cry of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf supporters, during his speech, leaving the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader hot and flustered, Express News reported.

The jeers began almost as soon as the central leader of the PML-N started taking potshots at Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman Imran Khan. Within minutes, a stream of people started walking out of the hall in protest.

Jeering Hamza, a woman rose and started chanting ‘Go Nawaz Go’ while he was addressing the gathering. Suddenly, the chant of ‘shame shame’ started echoing across the hall after which Hamza was forced to cut short his speech and uncomfortably stood up from the stage and hurry towards the exit door.

Hamza was the chief guest at the event and was expected to address the crowd at 11:00am but started his speech at 1:30pm, agitating the crowd. The disgruntled crowd claimed they had been waiting for Hamza since 8:00am in the morning.

However, not only was he late, but also ignored the topic of tourism and only addressed the current political crisis. This is not the first time a PML-N minister has been heckled by the crowd.

A few days back, during Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal’s speech at Preston University, a student had chanted ‘Go Nawaz Go.’ However, Iqbal was not perturbed and continued his speech, while the student faced expulsion from the university.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2014.