[10] Starting in the late-1960s,[11] and peaking in the 1970s and 1980s, violent gangs opposed to immigration took part in attacks known as "Paki-bashing", which targeted and assaulted South Asians and businesses owned by them,[12] and occasionally other ethnic minorities.
[11] The Joint Campaign Against Racism committee reported that there had been more than 20,000 racist attacks on British people of colour, including Britons of South Asian origin, during 1985.
[10][20] Peterborough businessman Abdul Rahim, who produces merchandise reclaiming the word, equates it to more socially accepted terms such as "Aussie" and "Kiwi", saying that it is more similar to them than it is to "nigger", as it denotes a nationality and not a biological race.
In January 2002, U.S. President George W. Bush said on India–Pakistan relations that "We are working hard to convince both the Indians and the Pakis that there's a way to deal with their problems without going to war."
After a Pakistani American journalist complained, a White House spokesman made a statement that Bush had great respect for Pakistan.
[13] This followed an incident four years earlier, when Clinton White House adviser Sandy Berger had to apologise for referencing "Pakis" in public comments.
[citation needed] In the 2018 biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, Freddie Mercury, who was Indian Parsi, was often addressed derogatorily as a "Paki" when he worked as a baggage handler at London Heathrow Airport in 1970.
"[33] In 2015, the American film Jurassic World was mocked satirically by British Asian comedian Guz Khan for using "pachys" (pronounced "pakis") as shorthand for the genus Pachycephalosaurus.
[34] During the 2024 UK General Election campaign, a canvasser for the Reform party used the slur against Rishi Sunak, which the prime minister later addressed and condemned.