LAHORE - Pakistanis on Twitter lambasted ‘Imran Khan is Pakistan’s Trump’ comment made by Trevor Noah, host of popular American comedy show ‘The Daily Show’.
Noah, a comedian who often found himself in controversies, has a huge fan following globally.
Noah’s comments came just a few days before Khan is set to become 19th prime minister of Pakistan. Khan is going to contest the election for prime minister’s office on Wednesday as his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has managed to secure support of sufficient number of candidates in the lower house of parliament to elect him prime minister.
Noah broadcasts ‘The Daily Show’ and his channel posted his four-minute video clip titled ‘Pakistan Gets Its Own Version of Donald Trump’. He commented ‘Imran Khan is Pakistan’s Trump’ and quickly Pakistanis on social networking site Twitter started giving response with thousands of tweets highlighting the 22-year struggle of cricketer-turned politician.
Noah said in his clip, “The more you realize these similarities. When Trump was doing Pizza Ads, Khan was in Ads for Pepsi. Trump has three marriages in the tabloids, so did Khan.
“In fact these guys are so alike that shortly before he was elected, Khan was also embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal (citing allegedly Reham Khan claim that Imran Khan sexually harassed her as per her book) and just like Trump he got through it.”
Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari, daughter of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, tweeted, “It’s hilariously true but also incredibly alarming Trevor Noah on Pakistan’s new Donald Trump, missed out the scariest aspect of him defending terrorists & terrorism.” She even made this tweet as her pinned tweet on her twitter account, which means it is the first tweet of her account.
Some of the tweets made by Pakistanis defended the PM-in-waiting. J Mughal tweeted, “Disappointing; not because he is trying to make a false comparison, but the fact he is delegitimising a leader who was voted by the population after years of corruption. Think of Imran Khan as an Obama and the message that sent; not a deluded racist Trump.”
It is pertinent to mention here tweets cited here have been treated for publication, avoiding hash tags, emojis and slang words used in them.
Junaid Dar labelled Noah as a patwari. “Never knew you are a "patwari". You know nothing, Noah. Nothing. Comparing Trump with Imran Khan is as crazy as it gets.”
Hamna Tahir said, “If you wish to use 'comedy' the least you could do is research. Imran Khan is nothing like Trump. While one builds hospitals to treat cancer patients free of charge the other does. Well, I don’t know what he (Trump) does except be a racist.”
According to Mehwish Zafar, this statement is “an absolute truth and simply hilarious”.
Javed Hassan said, “The orgasmic joy of so-called Paki liberals on seeing Trevor Noah falsely equate Imran Khan with Trump is yet another manifestation of their complete disconnect with the mood of the nation.”
One satire comment was made by Anas Tipu @teepusahab. He tweeted, “Trevor Noah is a Patwari. How dare he compare Imran Khan with Donald Trump? Chief justice should take notice and summon Trevor.”
Global issues, which haunted Donald Trump, including refugee problem, also came in on Twitter discussion. Sarfraz Khan @greenvox tweeted, “Imran Khan is in favour of hosting over 2 million refugees until they can return with dignity. Trump, Democrats and Republicans can't stomach a few hundred refugees.” Fouzia Shafiq said, “I really want you to get your facts straight about Imran Khan.