LAHORE: Pakistan joined an international trend on Thursday when a journalist hurled a shoe at Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif during the South Asia Labour Conference.

Just as Mr Sharif appeared at the venue of the meeting a man sitting behind TV cameras suddenly rose and threw one of his shoes at him. The shoe fell some distance from the chief minister.

Following that, the man identified as Imdad Ali Sohrro and said to be a reporter with a Sindhi-language channel, started chanting slogans for the arrest of those who had attacked well-known anchorperson Hamid Mir in Karachi a few days ago. He also unfurled a placard inscribed with the same demand.

Senior mediapersons present around Sohrro intervened in an attempt to calm the situation. They pleaded that an international event was an unsuitable venue for lodging a protest and questioned the ugly method of protest adopted.

The meeting was allowed to proceed after the chief minister's security was assured that the attacker would not create any further trouble.

The security-men, however, provided an uncalled for spectacle as soon as the chief minister had departed from the scene. As they dragged Sohrro, giving him a thrashing along the way, Waheed Gul, an MPA belonging to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, joined in with a few slaps-in-the-face of his own. The man was later released, on chief minister's orders, after Mr Sharif learned about the details of the incident.

The Lahore Press Club administration has banned Imdad Sohhrro's entry into the club while the Punjab Assembly's Press Gallery Committee suspended his membership. —Amjad Mahmood