Naqvi comes to CDA chairman, Islamabad IG's defence as they draw flak over carriage video with 'colonial' undertone

During Pakistan's Independence Day parade in Islamabad, a video went viral after two government officials—the Capital Development Authority chairman and the city's police chief—rode in a horse carriage to an audience that sat in silence. Per Dawn, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi defended them, explaining the carriage was originally meant for the chief guest but repurposed when he and the chief guest were delayed by a presidential meeting. Rather than keep the waiting crowd longer—they'd been standing since five pm—the program started at six pm. But the imagery sparked immediate social media criticism likening it to colonial-era hierarchy and questioning such pageantry in a nation facing widespread poverty.

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