Pakistan PM eats sitting with Saudi crown prince; president asked to stand up and deliver speech

Islamabad, Feb 21: Pakistan recently hosted the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), at a high-profile two-day visit during which Riyadh made agreement with Islamabad over investment worth billions.

However, there were instances during MBS's visit that earned the host nation criticism as well.

After Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was brutally trolled for personally driving MBS to the PM House in Islamabad, a new video has surfaced on the social media which saw the Pakistan leadership coming under even more mockery.

It is seen in the video that PM Khan is enjoying his meal while seating besides MBS as Pakistani President Arif Alvi delivered a welcome address for MBS.

Even the president started his address by sitting down and a few seconds into his speech, Alvi was asked to 'stand up' ("khade ho jaiyey") to deliver it by PM Khan. He then continued to read his welcome speech standing up.

The Twitterati had a field day ridiculing the incident. Not only the Pakistani prime minister's act of eating while sitting beside a foreign dignitary earned him a backlash but also the act of the president, considered to be the head of the state, of sitting and reading out the address and then asked to stand up and deliver looked odd for many.

Here are some of the reactions that Twitterati came up with:

My goodness. First @ImranKhanPTI drove car for MBS now this humiliation. #Pity

— Asha Bisht (@AashaBisht) February 18, 2019

Did u expect that from any other country around the world..its totally nonsense and only expected in Pakistan...no sense of any protocol...even from President nor from Prime minister

— Khushwinder singh (@Khushwi91550150) February 20, 2019

This show the education qualifications of President n P.M .No idea of protocols.

— ASHOK J PILLAI (@ASHOKJPILLAI2) February 20, 2019