A video showing a senior lawmaker apparently groping a minor girl sparked widespread anger on social media on Wednesday evening after it was circulated by at least one Facebook page, with many viewers tying it to recent cases of child abuse which have shaken the nation.

The lawmaker in question has been identified by Dawn.com as PML-N Senator Nisar Muhammad, who hails from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and is a member of Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights.

When contacted by Dawn.com for a comment, the senator refused to talk, asking that he be called later. His number was switched off when he was called again.

The video was filmed while he was speaking to protesters gathered in Karachi's Sohrab Goth area to protest the alleged extrajudicial killing of Naqeebullah Mehsud. The senator had been at the gathering as part of a Senate delegation.

The delegation — which incidentally represented the Senate's Standing Committee for Human Rights — had been led by Senator Nasreen Jalil and comprised senators Farhatullah Baber and Shahi Syed, among others.

The parliamentarians had met with the organizers of the jirga at Sohrab Goth, where they were joined by Speaker Sindh Assembly Agha Siraj Durrani and the emir of Jamaat-i-Islami, Sirajul Haq.

Jirga called off; protest to resume in Islamabad tomorrow

It has been reported separately that the jirga was called off after the delegation's visit.

Zafar Mehsud, one of the organizers of the jirga, told Dawn that they had called off the protest as the senators and Durrani had given them assurances that their legitimate demands would be fulfilled.

The jirga had convened at Sohrab Goth on January 18.

Zafar said it had now been called off in Karachi and the protesters have decided to join the protest in Islamabad from Thursday to push their demands.

With additional reporting by Imtiaz Ali.