Name-calling: Shujaat advises Imran to avoid ridiculing opponents

PML-Q leader urges prime minister to not call opposition names, terming it 'against the teachings of Islam'

ISLAMABAD:

Former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) chief Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain on Sunday asked Prime Minister Imran Khan to refrain from ridiculing the political opponents by calling them names.

Talking to media persons after an informal meeting with the party's parliamentarians, Shujaat noted that PM Imran always spoke about the model state of Madina, but he wouldn't have leveled accusations or called his opponents names had he studied the commandment in Holy Quran that prohibited it.

The veteran politician also quoted a specific verse from Holy Quran that sheds light on the act, and urged politicians to refrain from making harsh remarks or resorting to indecent talk.

“O believers! Do not let some ˹men˺ ridicule others, they may be better than them, nor let ˹some˺ women ridicule other women, they may be better than them. Do not defame one another, nor call each other by offensive names. How evil it is to act rebelliously after having faith! And whoever does not repent, it is they who are the ˹true˺ wrongdoers." (Sūratul Hujurāt, No. 49, Āyat 11)

He further advised politicians to adhere to the rules of decency and take an approach of patience.

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Two days ago, while addressing a huge public gathering at Blambat Ground in Timergara, the district headquarter of Lower Dir, Premier Khan had said he had been asked by the army chief not to call Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman “diesel”.

“I am not the one saying it, people have given him this name,” he was further quoted as saying.

Turning his guns towards former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, Imran had said, “I am told not to call Nawaz a bhagora (absconder) and a liar.”

He had also highlighted that Nawaz ran away from Pakistan twice – first after making an alleged deal with military dictator Pervez Musharraf and then allegedly feigning illness during his tenure.

PM had also accused Nawaz of trying to bribe an army chief with a BMW and having a secret meeting with Modi in Nepal.

He also called former president and PPP co-chairperson Asif Ali Zardari a daku (bandit) during the same speech.