After widespread outcry on social media, the Punjab government finally distanced itself on Tuesday from misogynistic remarks issued by PML-N leaders Rana Sanaullah, Tallal Chaudhry and Abid Sher Ali.
In a tweet posted on Tuesday, Chief Minister Shehbaz said, “PMLN acknowledes and encourages the role of women in national politics. Any statement demeaning them is highly irresponsible. We have to maintain decency and element of respect in political discourse. I apologise for anti-women remarks made by some party leaders.”
These leaders had made statements targetting PTI’s chief whip Shireen Mazari and women participants at the party’s Lahore rally on Sunday.
Sanaullah, while speaking to reporters outside the Punjab Assembly on Monday, made derogatory remarks about the women who attended the rally, saying: “The women who attended the rally were not from honourable families. Their dance moves showed where they had actually come from.”
At a separate press conference, Chaudhry said, “We don’t ask whose house you [Imran Khan] stay at when you visit London. It is another matter altogether what you do over there. When it comes to your wife, she remains veiled, but our mothers and sisters are for display?”
Earlier, Abid Sher Ali passed derogatory remarks against Mazari, while addressing a public gathering on Sunday night.
After the comments sparked backlash against the PML-N leaders, Punjab government spokesperson Malik Ahmed Khan issued a condemnation. “Be it Abid Sher Ali, Rana Sanaullah, Tallal Chaudhry or Imran Khan, I cannot tolerate this as these women are our mothers, sisters and daughters,” Malik said.
“What Rana Sanaullah said was wrong. I condemn that. He should not have said it. What Tallal said was wrong. I condemn that. He should not have said it,” the spokesperson said while speaking to a private news channel.
“Irrespective of their political affiliation, [such derogatory language] should not be used against women who come forward to take part in the political process,” he said.
While he condemned PML-N leaders, Malik Ahmed Khan held PTI chairman Imran Khan responsible for introducing foul language to politics. “The language they [PML-N leaders] used does not reflect the culture of the party. Such language has been introduced by [Imran] Khan.”
Meanwhile, speaking to a private TV channel, Sanaullah said that his ‘general statements’ were being ‘unfairly criticised’.
“PTI has always targets its own women unfairly. Imran Khan should first send an apology to Ayesha Gulalai and then I will apologise for my remarks,” he said.
Calling out both PTI and PML-N on use of derogatory language against women, PPP Information Secretary Maula Bux Chandio said that his party would not tolerate the use of lewd remarks against female political workers.
“Rana Sanaullah was expelled from the PPP by Benazir Bhutto when he made lewd remarks against Maryam Nawaz,” Chandio alleged.
Chandio said there was not much difference between the PML-N and PTI’s attitude towards women, adding that the way women were harassed at PTI rallies was shameful.
Defence Minister Khurram Dastgir Khan also expressed his condemnation against his party men’s remarks. In a tweet posted on Tuesday, he siad, “Disrespectful remarks about women are reprehensible, regardless of who utters them.”
A day earlier, PTI chairman Imran Khan and leaders like Asad Umar and Shah Mahmood Qureshi had taken to Twitter to condemn the PML-N leaders’ remarks.
“Disgusted by [and] strongly condemn the filthy language used by Rana Sanaullah [and] Abid Sher Ali against our PTI women,” said Khan. “In the past 30 years, these people have always disrespected women which is against our religion [and] culture. I want to thank our women for coming out in such huge numbers!”
Umar called the comments “disgraceful”, demanding that Punjab CM Shahbaz Sharif “apologise to all the women who have been targeted by his party leaders”. “I am proud to call the women who were at the jalsa my sisters [and] daughters. My wife was also there.”
Editorial PMLN and misogyny —A6
Published in Daily Times, May 2nd 2018.
