PHOTO: FILE
It was the fourth day of the current session of the lower house of parliament and like its previous sittings, Thursday also witnessed noisy protests by the opposition. At one stage, the opposition approached the Speaker's dais and raised slogans against Prime Minister Khan.
The protest began immediately after the house passed a bill regarding election in the former Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) after the Question hour. PPP's women lawmakers sought to speak on points of order on Khan’s remarks during a rally in Wana.
The PPP lawmakers were protesting against Khan’s remarks during a rally in Wana on Wednesday. Khan had said: "Unlike ‘Bilawal Sahiba’, I didn’t come into politics through a chit like the last will of his mother [slain PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto].”
The PPP lawmakers surrounded the speaker's dais and tore copies of the agenda, when Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri denied them permission to raise the points of order and instead asked them to wait for the completion of agenda first.
Later he allowed PPP’s Nafeesa Shah to speak. "This is an insult to the post of prime minister. If the prime minister does not take back his words, I will say that he is not my prime minister," Shah told the house. "I am not doing politics [on this issue] but I’m standing in solidarity with all the women."
She called on male members of the house not to dismiss these remarks. She added that all the female members of the National Assembly had decided in a caucus that they would not play politics when it comes to women's issues and called on them to support each other in such matters.
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Taking aim at the government, she said that whenever, the prime minister said something wrong, it is said that it was a 'slip of tongue'. "It is our demand that the prime minister apologises to the women. If he does not do this, then from here to Wana 'Go Imran Go' will echo all over," she said.
Shah asserted that calling Bilawal ‘Sahiba’ does harm Bhutto Zardari’s character. The attempt to ridicule Bhutto Zardari in this manner is an insult to all the women of Pakistan and to the cultural values of the Pakistani society.
She pointed out that the reaction to the prime minister’s ‘misogynistic remarks’ sparked on social media was not from the PPP or its workers, but from sensible segments of society. "This misogyny and hatred is not against the PPP or Bilawal… This is a reflection of misogynistic thinking."
She said that in the Pakistani culture women and men are both respected in their different roles as father, mother, sister or wife etc. "This respect is a part of our core values, and I ask those from the tribal areas: ‘Is it not in your core values that you respect women’."
Dr Shah said that such remarks are also an embarrassment to the post of prime minister. She added that the explanation issued after the prime minister’s remarks is also sad. It called it a "slip of [the] tongue”. “How many slips of tongue will you have?"
After completion of her speech, the chair announced to adjourn the House till April 26, 2019 (Friday). Because of the adjournment, the house could not take up most of the agenda marked for the day.
Earlier, the house passed the Elections (Amendment) bill, 2019. It was moved by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan. The bill paves the way for elections on 16 general seats of erstwhile-Fata for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly before July 25.
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