Father of girl who assaulted flight attendant was not an ex-govt official: Quetta commissioner

Quetta Commissioner Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat has dismissed reports about the father-daughter duo who were offloaded from the flight on Wednesday after allegedly misbehaving with a flight attendant, claiming that they were actually the victims of misbehaviour.

Shafqaat took to his official Instagram story on Thursday, writing that the old man, Jogezai, was pushed and mistreated on the flight, to which his daughter “retaliated.”

“Anyone with tribal background would understand that “badtameezi (disrespect)” with elders is taken as an attack on one’s pride and dignity,” Shafqaat wrote.

He dismissed the media reports claiming that Jogezai was the ex-commissioner of Quetta. “The passenger about whom this news is being spread was never commissioner…In fact he was never served in any government department (sic),” he added.

He further claimed that no one from the entire Jogezai family has ever served as commissioner of Quetta.

As per his Facebook bio, Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat is currently serving as Commissioner Quetta. He has done an LLM from a university in London and an MPhil from the National Defence University (NDU). He has also studied computer engineering at GIK.

Multiple media reports had earlier claimed that the former commissioner of Quetta, Iftikhar Jogezai, along with his daughter, were offloaded from a Quetta-Islamabad flight on Wednesday after allegedly assaulting a female flight attendant of Serene Air.

As per media details, a heated debate flared up when the flight attendant politely instructed the passenger to fasten her seatbelt and close the tray table.

The former commissioner’s daughter allegedly used "inappropriate language" and caused a disturbance during the flight, prompting the pilot to contact air traffic control and land the aircraft back on the runway.

According to media reports, the Airport Security Force (ASF) was summoned, and the two passengers were asked to disembark. However, the woman reportedly refused to leave and allegedly punched’ the flight attendant in a fit of rage, causing injuries to the attendant's face.

The impact was so severe that the attendant’s nose started bleeding, and one of her teeth broke.

Following a submission of apology for the incident, the father-daughter duo — whom the ASF had detained on charges of assault, disrupting the flight, and endangering the lives of other passengers and the crew — were allowed to leave.