Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif landed in Tehran earlier today to pay respects to late President Raisi who passed away days earlier in an unfortunate helicopter crash.
After landing at the airport, Shehbaz Sharif made his way out of the plane to be greeted by individuals from the Iran government. At this moment, Federal Minister for Information Attaullah Tarar, seemingly morphed into the PM’s personal photographer, as he aggressively started taking pictures and videos of the PM’s arrival from every possible angle in an almost cartoonish fashion.
Here is the video:
Tarar’s antics drew the ire of netizens who described the episode as ‘humiliating’, ‘shameful’ and ’embarrassing’.
In a tweet on X (formerly twitter) a user said Tarar was described as ‘Information minister cum personal photographer’.
Pakistan information Minister Atta Tarar cum Personal Photographer for Shebaz Sharif.
— Khaleek kohistani (@KhalekKohistani) May 23, 2024
What a low… pic.twitter.com/cCBY0O4Kt2
However, some users had a different take on the incident. Apart from pointing out that Tarar displayed humbleness by takingin the role of photographing the PM as a Federal Minsiter, there is an aspect of cost saving by taking up dual roles
Much of the criticism is coming from PTI circles that miss no opportunity to berate Tarar due to his very public rivalry with members of the party.
But the PTI itself has had a similar moment of overzealous photography of the party leadership by senior members.
Faisal Javed, who is sometimes referred to as PTI founder Imran Khan’s ‘announcer’, due to his colorful hosting of PTI jalsas. He can be seen in the picture below snapping a picture of Imran Khan in an awkward fashion similar to Tarar’s.
Commentators described the episode as ‘odd’ and ‘unnecessary’; unbecoming of a federal minister.
“The amount of angles you took picture from, if you had instead appeared on the same amount of channels and defended your party, it would’ve been better”, commented journalist Mansoor Ali Khan on his daily YouTube vlog.
