Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik speaks during an interview with Reuters in lslamabad August 4, 2012.
Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik speaks during an interview with Reuters in lslamabad August 4, 2012. Malik said elements of the Afghan government are likely supporting a senior Pakistani Taliban leader who is fighting to topple the Islamabad government, accusations which could further raise tensions over cross-border raids by militants. Picture taken August 4, 2012. REUTERS/Faisal Mahmood

"Shame on you," screamed passengers. Sick of continuous delays and postponements, angry Pakistani passengers stopped Rehman Malik, senior former interior minister (from 2008 to 2013) and influential politician, from getting on to the Pakistani Internationals Airlines (PIA) plane. He was two hours late for his arrival, and stoked loud protests, as a video showed on Tuesday. He was chased back to the terminal building.

The flurry of comments in the video was voluminous. "You should be ashamed of yourself...250 passengers have suffered because of you. It is your fault, sir," one passenger said. "Malik sahab, you are not a minister any more. And even if you are, we don't care...anymore."

One passenger asked him to catch a bus. Another asked whether he was god. When the ex-interior minister approached along the jet bridge, people were heard telling "Malik sahab" that they were sorry, but that he should go back and apologize to these passengers. Some were heard grumbling: "So-called VIPs" and "My foot VIPs."

One man asked the staff to close the gates and fly the plane to Islamabad. They added that it should be recorded, as Rehman Malik had been offloaded and thrown out. The punishment was repeated for another politician, Ramesh Kumar Wakwani, who also came late for the flight, according to Daily Mail.

After they was offloaded, passengers began to applaud. A flight member asked him to apologise to the passengers. Finally, the plane, that was operated by the government-managed Pakistan International Airlines (PIA), took off from Karachi for Islamabad without him. It was an unusual event for the PIA airline, which is facing financial problems and inefficient staff. It tends to delay planes in order to relax its schedules to accommodate politicians and keeps passengers hanging for hours, according to angry passengers.

Later, the scene erupted in the Internet, as users expressed their appreciation of the passengers. Awab Alvi said that they were proud to see people of Pakistan truly standing up against VIP status quo. He congratulated Karachites for bringing the first ever true revolution in Pakistan at the PIA flight yesterday at Karachi airport.

Pakistan is rising!!! The evidence is there!! Rehman Malik and Dr. Ramesh thrown out of PIA flight for being late #ThankYouImranKhan

— Shoaib Khan (@5hoab) September 15, 2014

However, Malik replied on Twitter that he has a right to defend himself against the allegation. PK370 /1900hr was delayed due to technical reasons, and was expected to leave at 2030. He said that he could not be held responsible. PIA should be blamed, he wrote on his Twitter page.

The PIA flight was not delayed for me.I saw one guy looked to be drunk shouting at PIA and I decided to return as the door was closed — Rehman Malik (@SenRehmanMalik) September 15, 2014

PIA spokesperson Mashood Tajwar too told Dawn that the flight was delayed due to a technical glitch, not a Malik glitch! He clarified that PIA does not promote VIP culture, but this flight was delayed an hour and 30 minutes due to a technical reason. The delay had been messaged to passengers through SMS. A few passengers who had boarded the plane through their travel agents may not have received the message. He clarified that they are looking into what actually happened but after the delay, the flight departed when it was meant to.