Do you remember the Blue-eyed Pakistani Chaiwala Arshad Khan? He broke the internet after he was discovered at a roadside tea stall last year. His looks may have broken and simultaneously healed multiple hearts when he went viral on social media for his good looks.
But Pakistan’s viral Chaiwala may just be in hot water with authorities due to fake documents. Pakistani authorities are now saying that the Chaiwala is an Afghan who obtained a passport using fake documents.
Arshad Khan became a sensation when Pakistani photographer Jiah Ali posted a photo of him on her Instagram feed last October. Arshad, who got Indian and Pakistani twitter going crazy and agreeing on something for once, has since then appeared on television shows and has even tried modeling.
But everything turned upside down after the Pakistan authorities claimed that Arshad was an Afghan. Geo News reported on Tuesday that Pakistan’s National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) had accused Khan of using “fraudulent documents” to obtain a computerized national identity card in June.
Geo News also reported that Khan had deleted pictures posted on his Facebook page that showed him receiving his identity card at the NADRA headquarters in Islamabad. The report said Khan’s parents, Baaz Khan and Saran Bibi, were both Afghan refugees holding “refugee cards”.
Khan then applied for a Pakistani passport and during the scrutiny of his documents, several “red flags began to show”, the report said. The staff at the passport office put his application on hold but Khan reportedly used his celebrity status to pressure officials and a passport was issued to him.
Geo News quoted its sources as saying that Khan and his family hailed from Kandahar in Afghanistan and had passed themselves off as members of the Moosakhel clan to acquire Pakistani documents.
However, Khan denied and told that his father was born in Pakistani Punjab and his family hailed from Mardan in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province and he was an Afghan. He said his father had migrated to Saudi Arabia in 1984 and worked there for 13 years before returning to Pakistan. He also said he lives on the outskirts of Islamabad with his family.
Khan did not provide any documents to support his claims despite repeated requests, said the channel.