A young sportsman has drawn flake from social media users for allegedly snubbing Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during an award distribution ceremony.

A video was tweeted by a social media user who lauded the boy’s alleged show of disrespect for the premier when he half-heartedly shook hands with Shehbaz Sharif without engaging in eye contact with him. The video prompted sharp criticism from famous personalities who expressed their displeasure over the boy’s gesture.

The video, which has garnered over 1.5 million views after it was tweeted on July 20, apparently in an attempt to mock the prime minister, was recorded at the launching ceremony of Pakistan Sports Endowment Fund along with first-ever Pakistan Sports University at Islamabad on July 19.

The fund is aimed at providing financial assistance, relevant training and other facilities to the emerging players and retired sportspersons of the country, according to PTV tickers running on the screen in the same video.

The video shows the prime minister engaging in customary hand-shaking with young players, who queued up to meet him. However, one of the players turned his face away as he approached the premier to shake hands with him, contrary to what his teammates or colleagues were doing.

The behaviour was condemned by Pakistan Peoples Party’s veteran leader Farhatullah Babar among others.

“This is no embarrassment to the prime minister. It’s an insult to the spirit of sportsmanship. It’s an embarrassment to the coaches. It’s an embarrassment to the sports academy training the young sportsman,” he said, responding to the original tweet, which claimed the incident was “an absolute embarrassment” for the premier.

Former Islamabad High Court judge Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui also took exception to the boy’s gesture, condemning it rather emphatically, and demanding that the boy be removed from the team for “bringing disrepute to the country”.

Siddiqui accused the boy of exhibiting arrogance.

Not what it looks like

On the other hand, journalist Waseem Abbasi claimed citing PM office sources that the video was from the previous week and that the player was a bit nervous but in the end he did shake hands and no one noticed this as an incident at that time.

“Now social media is taking it out of context,” Abbasi quoted an unnamed official as saying.