Dance, protest, drama outside Junaid Safdar’s nikah venue

LONDON: PML-N activists battled a group of protestors outside the Lanesborough Hotel right opposite the Hyde Park Corner and Park Lane — the venue of Nawaz Sharif’s grandson Junaid Safdar’s nikah event.

A group of six people led by Zafar Khilji, who is originally from Karachi and runs a trading company in East London, arrived at the venue carrying posters of “Voice of Pakistan” and demanded the return of the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to Pakistan.

PMLN workers, led by Zubair Gull, reached the venue two hours before the start of the nikah event, with sweets and two professional drummers.

A male friend and three female companions accompanied Khilji. PMLN workers moved immediately to snatch the banners and forced the group to leave the area through Hyde Park.

Speaking to the media, Khilji and his friend Dawood said they were not expecting “rudeness” from PML-N workers and were there “only to exercise our right of free expression”.

Dawood claimed that he was pushed and forced to leave the area while he was there to “question where the money came from for the expensive nikah ceremony”.

Khilji told this reporter that he had assurance from the original protest organisers and others that they would turn up at the protest but they didn’t show up and let others down.

“It was a mistake to be there,” he said.

As Khilji and his group left for their homes, a bizarre scene unfolded right at the car passage outside the main entry door of the hotel.

Pakistani cab driver Muhammad Nadeem parked his car at the entrance, blocked the passage, played a song, and started dancing outside to the hippy tune while his wife, daughter, and son filmed him. What followed next was drama and entertainment too.

Around a dozen PMLN workers gathered around him and asked him to move his car but he refused and said he was there to “have fun, dance and sing with my family” as a way of protest against Nawaz.

When Nadeem refused to leave, security guards of the hotel and PML-N workers pushed him hard to force him into his car seat but the cab driver refused and fell on the ground — pretending as if he had fainted.

As the security staff brought water for him and his family kept filming the scene, a PML-N worker entered into his car to move it but right then Nadeem jumped up and started chanting slogans again.

He was pushed several meters away from the car and his vehicle was forced-moved to the end of the private parking way.

Both Nadeem’s wife and the hotel management called the security, against each other. Meanwhile, both sides abused each other in the most vulgar terms.

After the police interviewed both sides, Nadeem spoke to Pakistani journalists and danced and sang “Ho Guriya Japani” for them.

Nadeem said he was a supporter of PTI and “loved Imran Khan” but didn’t like anyone in PTI other than the party leader himself.

Nadeem said he wants accountability of Nawaz, however, Pervez Musharraf, Aleem Khan, Faisal Vawda should also be held accountable for the wealth they have made.

“I was on Edgware Road to treat my family and then came here to demand the money trail. I will not let this marriage event go ahead,” said Nadeem, adding that someone also punched his son during the melee.

Nadeem said he danced at the hotel entrance so that his video could go viral.

“I once danced outside Avenfield flats and that video had gone viral and I got so much recognition due to that video.”

The call to protest was given through WhatsApp groups and also at a protest held outside 10 Downing Street by a group calling itself “Insaaf Ki Umeed”.

Both the original protest coordinator and organiser of “Insaaf Ki Umeed” withdrew the protest call after PML-N’s UK leader Gull announced to bring out activists to counter the protests through “whatever means possible”.

Several protestors who arrived at the scene said they supported PTI and some said they were “paying members” of the party.

However, the officials of PTI had distanced themselves from the protest in strong words.

Jabar Farooq Chohan told Geo.tv that the PTI had not called for any protest.

Jabar Farooq Chohan said: “The PTI has nothing to do with any demonstration on the property owned by the Sharif family or any place where any ceremony is taking place regarding the marriage of Captain Safdar's son.

“PTI does not want to discourage any Pakistani’s freedom of expression but as an organisation, it wants to make it clear that the PTI has not called for any kind of demonstration and the PTI has nothing to do with any such demonstration. PTI UK expresses dissatisfaction with the protest.”

Inside the venue, Junaid Safdar’s nikkah was formalised with Ayesha Saif — the daughter of former accountability chief Senator Saif-ur-Rehman — in the presence of Nawaz, his family members, and guests mainly invited by the bride’s side.

A police officer at the venue said that both the cab driver and a PML-N representative had given statements to the police making allegations. “We will review the footage and decide the next steps,” said the police officer.