Pakistan’s former Cricket Captain, Wasim Akram, is perhaps one of the most known faces in Pakistan. He’s thoroughly loved, people look up to him and he’s also garnered a lot of respect for always being vocal about his health condition. The former skipper was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 30, which came as a shock to him and his fans.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwpUHnylWFu/
“I remember what a shock it was,” he has stated, “because I was a healthy sportsman with no history of diabetes in my family, so I didn’t expect it at all. It seemed strange that it happened to me when I was 30, but it was a very stressful time and doctors said that can trigger it.”
Since then, Wasim Akram has been involved in various awareness campaigns for diabetes.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwL-bFvFAHI/
However, recently, he was made to feel “embarrassed” and “humiliated” about the same. Wasim Akram took to Twitter to complain about the treatment he faced at Manchester airport:
“Very disheartened at Manchester airport today, I travel around the world with my insulin but never have I been made to feel embarrassed. I felt very humiliated as I was rudely questioned & ordered publicly to take my insulin out of its travel cold-case & dumped into a plastic bag.”
Here’s the tweet:
Very disheartened at Manchester airport today,I travel around the world with my insulin but never have I been made to feel embarrassed.I felt very humiliated as I was rudely questioned & ordered publicly to take my insulin out of its travel cold-case & dumped in to a plastic bag pic.twitter.com/UgW6z1rkkF
— Wasim Akram (@wasimakramlive) July 23, 2019
As soon as he tweeted this out, the post garnered a lot of engagement, and his fans rushed to support him or offer counsel in some form or the other.
Some condemned this behavior
Strongly Condemn
Manchester Airport staff are very rude Wasim bhai..always try to avoid flying from this airport— Shahjhan Malik (She/Her) (@shahjhan_malikk) July 23, 2019
Others had a more neutral outlook, but still talked about how rude the officials could be
They have every right to object on anything but there's always a polite way to treat someone who's a visitor. This behavior is not acceptable..also these are only medicines. But at the end of the day they're one of those rude Britishers😠😠 Love frm India @wasimakramlive sir.
— Satendra (@saten_nama) July 23, 2019
Some believed that “rules are rules”
https://twitter.com/kevinBrut1/status/1153623971595792385
Others shared their personal experiences
A little bit of me dies every time I travel through Manchester airport. They treat passengers with disdain and are a national embarrassment.
— Ghazanfer Ali (@fu_man999) July 23, 2019
https://twitter.com/ChaudriIrfan/status/1153624905805705217
Manchester airport is the worst of UK airport. we had very bad experience. staff was rude, unprofessional and had insulting behaviour towards the passengers especially from Asian background.
— Uzma Danish 🇵🇸 (@0ut_Lander) July 23, 2019
Some believed this was harassment, and if a legend like Wasim Akram faced this, what would an average Pakistani have to go through?
https://twitter.com/wazim81/status/1153627039015948288
Mostly, however, people demanded that some action be taken against this
You are a legend & national hero shame on them our embeacy should take action on it
— waseem (@waseemrabbani19) July 23, 2019
https://twitter.com/AddyJafary/status/1153623984593915904
https://twitter.com/Humayounpti/status/1153628076582084613
https://twitter.com/AhmedSamiAbbasi/status/1153629648988844032
With the outrage this has garnered, let’s see if Wasim Akram ends up getting that apology. What’s your take on the matter? Let us know in the comments.
