A Pakistani government minister turned “cat-face” when a video filter was mistakenly turned-on during a live press conference.
Provincial Information Minister Yousuf Shaukat Zai, from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in north-west Pakistan, and member of the ruling party PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) was talking to local journalists at a press conference that was being broadcast live via social media.
SBS report: The event became a bit awkward when cats ears and whiskers appeared on the minister’s face during the live video.
The auto-filter soon caught his colleague, too, who then had a similar cat’s appearance.
The video immediately went viral on social media but was later deleted from the political party’s official page.
Responding to the embarrassing incident, PTI’s social media team has called it a “human error” and said that “all actions have been taken to avoid such incidents in future.”
“Yesterday whilst covering a Press briefing held by KP’s information minister Shaukat Yousafzai, a ‘cat filter’ was witnessed by the viewers which was removed within few minutes,” the party statement stated.
Social media erupted with cat-memes and cat-ch phrases.
One person wrote on Twitter, “according to KP government’s social media team we now have a cat in the cabinet.
Another tweeted, “Who let the cats out!!!”
The minister concerned, however, appears to have not taken the matter too seriously.
He told the AFP news agency: “I wasn’t the only one — two officials sitting along me were also hit by the cat filter.”