Former Pakistani cricketer Ijaz Ahmed was slammed for his racist remarks against the Pashtun community in a live television program. He accused them of the poor performance of the Pakistan Cricket Team.
While talking about the downfall of cricket in Pakistan, he said that 80% of the cricket in Pakistan is restricted to the remote area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Even the local team of Sindh has seven to eight Pashtun players. He claimed that such players lack education and exposure.
“They wake up in the morning and go for prayers with their fathers and return home. In tense situations, these players fail to perform well,” said Ijaz.
His statements caused quite a stir on social media. The former cricketer received immense backlash on X for deriding the Pashtun community. Calls have been made for the former cricketer to apologize.
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A social media user wrote “Never seen more blatant racism on TV,” and criticized the program anchor for staying silent.
https://x.com/fasi_zaka/status/1800413589091864645
Another cricket fan wrote “Such an embarrassing statement by Ijaz Ahmed, any Pakhtoon is more than talented, hard worker, contributor to nation sincere. They have many contributions like Dr AQ Khan, Imran Khan, Younis Khan, Jahangir Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Yasir Shah, and so on.”
The incident happened on an ARY NEWS talk show. Regarding the controversy, the owner Salman Iqbal said: “What was said at Kashif Abbasi’s show by Ijaz Ahmed is not acceptable by ARY management and me personally. I have a huge respect for the Pakhtun community and all the communities we have in Pakistan. I think that Ijaz Ahmed should apologize to the Pashtun community for his statement.”
Users also condemned anchor Kashif Abbasi for not interrupting the former cricketer when he was passing these comments on national television. Cricketer Junaid Khan too demanded that Ijaz Ahmed apologize to the Pashtun community.