Karachi, May 18
President Pervez Musharraf has banned veteran Bollywood actor Feroze Khan from entering Pakistan after his reported remarks highlighting comfort levels of Muslims in India in comparison to that in Pakistan triggered a nationwide controversy.The Pakistan President took the decision following a report submitted by the intelligence agencies.
“Feroze Khan has been banned from entering Pakistan in future. The President’s decision has been communicated to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi,” a private television reported quoting sources in the Presidency.
Interior Ministry and Foreign Office have also been directed accordingly, ARY channel said quoting sources.
“The President House has taken serious notice of his remarks which were widely covered in the Indian and Pakistani media and directed the authorities concerned to blacklist him and impose ban on his next entry into Pakistan,” it said.
The Pakistan Foreign Office would also inform the High Commissioner in New Delhi not to issue visa to the 67-year-old actor in future, it said.
Feroze Khan’s reported remarks during the premiere of his brother Akbar Khan’s film ‘Taj Mahal’ in Lahore last month set off a heated verbal exchange between him and a local compere.
“I am a proud Indian. India is a secular country. Muslims there are making lot of progress. Our President is a Muslim, Prime Minister a Sikh. Pakistan was made in the name of Islam but look how the Muslims are killing each other. I have not come here on my own. I was invited to come. Our films are so powerful that your government could not stop them for long,” he was quoted as saying by a Pakistani daily last month.
About his brother’s remarks, Akbar Khan on Monday said Feroze Khan “did not mean what he said”.
“My brother did not mean what he said. It was merely a slip of tongue. We are very upset on the comment made by BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in which he has called my brother a ‘true nationalist’. He is treating my brother in a wrong light,” he said.
— PTI
