Imran Khan govt sacks PTV top official but ‘begging’ blunder already did a big damage

Islamabad, Nov 9: Often in the past, Pakistan's cricketers and their captains have been mocked for their English-speaking ability. The fumble with the language, when asked questions by the anchors, made the latter ask in the local language to avoid embarrassments.

But recently, an incident happened that left the entire nation in shock and it involved none else but the prime minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf lead was on a tour of China recently to give a renewed push to his country's relation with Beijing. He addressed an event at the Central Party School in the Chinese capital. His speech was being shown live on Pakistan Television (PTV), the country's biggest media organisation. The dateline of the top left corner of the TV screen showed the word "BEGGING" while it was supposed to be Beijing.

The incident caused such humiliation for the government and the nation that the Khan regime initiated action against five PTV staff members for allegedly typing the word "Begging"

Two staff members were taken off duty immediately and the government later ordered removal of PTV's managing director, Arshad Khan, for the dateline goof-up. However, the damage was already done by then as the 20-second duration of the blunder made the nation and its leadership a butt of joke for netizens.

Khan is on a desperate search of foreign funds to save his country from an economic downfall as its foreign reserves have plummeted alarmingly. Recently, he managed to get aid from Saudi Arabia and now, Islamabad is hoping to get more from China, its all-weather friend, though the latter's media has expressed a concern over how Pakistan uses the funds that it received.