Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan, the Punjab provincial minister for Information and Culture, received massive backlash on social media for passing insensitive and hurtful remarks against differently-abled people.
While warning the shopowners for hoarding masks and sanitizers or any other product needed to protect from the pandemic coronavirus in a press conference he ended up calling differently-abled people a god’s punishment and misquoted verses from Quran in a press conference yesterday.
Dear PM Sb / @ImranKhanPTI why does your nation deserve the reappointment of this mistake called #FayazChohan ?
They do not need this sick indoctrination from your @pid_gov . Remove him & those who placed him under your nose previously. immediately plz before further damage🙏🏽 https://t.co/iT0mI9XwJx— Saffina Ellahi (@SaffinaEllahi1) March 17, 2020
He was trying to fear the miscreants for illegal hoarding and artificially pulling up the prices of the commodities from the wrath of God.
“Whoever adopts an idealogy like “Apna sub kuch banta, bhaar mein jaye janta” (I am entitled to everything, forget about other people), God punishes them, and we see that in our society such as handicapped and differently-abled children being born,” the aggressive PTI leader said in the statement.
Read more: Provincial Minister Fayyaz-ul-Hassan Chohan apologized to actresses after public outrage
Soon, PTI’s federal minister for Human Rights, Shireen Mazari took to her Twitter account and took to cleaners Fayyaz ul Hassan Chohan in a tweet.
Not surprise by Fayaz ul hasan chohan. Im sure he meant something else but that’s him. He must apologise to all the special children and their parents for his obnoxious twisted belief. Such mindset should be in JUI-F
— Hassaan Niazi (@HniaziISF) March 17, 2020
Special children are not an "azaab" but are special human beings to be cared for and loved and allowed to develop their own potential. In fact no child can ever be an "azaab" and for anyone to make such a cruel, inhumane statement is absolutely unforgivable and condemnable.
— Shireen Mazari (@ShireenMazari1) March 17, 2020
“Special children are not an “azaab” [punishment] but are special human beings to be cared for and loved and allowed to develop their own potential. Infact, no child can ever be an “azaab”, and for anyone to make such a cruel, inhumane statement is absolutely unforgivable and condemnable,” she tweeted.
Colossal reactions generated on social media and even the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also expressed deep concerns on his statements.
https://twitter.com/Fayazchohanpti/status/1239912973918969862?s=20
In a tweet, they pointed out that these abhorrent remarks were made in the presence of the Punjab Health Minister, Dr. Yasmin Rashid.
It advised that ministers should realize the somberness of their status and should refrain from making comments that would hurt the sentiments of people or generate unnecessary controversy.
Later he issued an apologetic video, in which he clarified that he did not intend to hurt the sentiments of disabled people. He said he made a wrong use of words to express his anger against hoarders. He said his actual criticism was meant for people who are earning illegal profits amid a global catastrophe of coronavirus.