Pakistani cartoonist fired for drawing disgraceful cartoon in national newspaper against PM Khan
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ISLAMABAD - A cartoonist in Pakistan says one of the country’s leading English-language dailies has told him to stop drawing for them following a controversy over his caricature of the country’s prime minister this week.
Khalid Hussain, 54, a professional cartoonist, told RFE/RL’s Gandhara website that the management of The Nation newspaper informed him that they will not be printing his cartoons after a sketch of his depicting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan garnered angry reactions from senior government officials after being published on September 25.
“I don’t know how long they will not be printing my cartoons or whether they will ever print my cartoons [again],” he told Gandhara on September 27.
It was not immediately possible to reach The Nation’s management.
But in a September 26 statement to its readers, the paper apologized for Hussain’s cartoon. “The artwork fell short of our standards and does not reflect our editorial policy,” the statement said.
“We are proud to be a nationalistic paper, and we regret sincerely the attention taken by an artwork that was inappropriate, especially at the time of the UN General Assembly session taking place in New York,” the statement said adding that “necessary steps have been taken to ensure our internal procedures” without elaborating.
