Rickshaw union chief goes viral after pulling up in BMW

A video. A BMW. A man whose face is plastered on banners behind thousands of Lahore's rickshaws. The internet was never going to let this one go quietly.

Footage circulating on social media shows Majeed Ghauri, chairman of the Awami Rickshaw Union, stepping out of a BMW in Lahore. For anyone unfamiliar with Ghauri, a quick scroll through the city's roads would introduce you — his portrait hangs on banners behind countless auto-rickshaws across Lahore, where he is the most recognisable face of the city's rickshaw driving community.

As chairman of the Awami Rickshaw Union, Ghauri represents tens of thousands of drivers, regularly going to bat for them on everything from government transport policies to traffic challans and public transportation bans. He is, by any measure, a prominent labour rights figure in the city.

Which is precisely why the BMW hit different.

Social media did what social media does. Some users cheekily crowned him a "VIP." Others pointed out, with varying degrees of amusement, that they recognised him immediately from the rickshaw banners — which, in fairness, is one of the more uniquely Lahori ways to become locally famous. The contrast between his public role as a working class representative and the luxury vehicle in the clip was not lost on anyone.

Ghauri has not publicly commented on the video. The BMW, meanwhile, has become Lahore's most talked-about car this week.