PTI reacts sharply to Fatima Bhutto’s criticism
Central Vice President Shireen Mazari says Fatima’s critique based on ‘limited exposure’, factual inaccuracies.
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Central Vice President Shireen Mazari has said that writer and journalist Fatima Bhutto’s criticism for PTI chief Imran Khan stems from her ‘limited exposure’.
“We all respect and admire the spirit of empathy in Fatima’s writings for the people of Pakistan but she is still ill-informed about realities prevailing in the country as she has not yet spent enough time here,” Mazari said on Monday.
Bhutto family scion Fatima, speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday, had said that she will never join the PTI and that Imran had ‘coziness with dictatorship’.
Mazari said that the little time that Fatima had spent in Pakistan was highly supervised with limited exposure, which is understandable given the tragedies she has had to face during her formative years.
“Having come to know [Fatima’s father] Murtaza Bhutto and admire him for his commitment to rescue his legacy from the destruction being wrought upon it by President Zardari, it is difficult to critique his young and talented daughter,” Mazari said, but qualified it by saying that Fatima needed to correct her factual inaccuracies.
Defending Imran, Mazari said that he had never ‘cosied up’ to dictators. “During Zia’s black days, Imran was still playing cricket and he has publicly apologised for supporting Musharraf’s referendum,” she said. Imran’s apology earned him the wrath of Musharraf and he was thrown into the jail considered among the worst prisons in the country, she said.
Mazari said that the reference that Fatima made to the bill supporting rape victims was also placed out of context. “The opposition at the time was combined against the excesses of the then PPP government and it was not a question of Imran opposing any measure aimed at supporting women,” she claimed.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Central Vice President Shireen Mazari has said that writer and journalist Fatima Bhutto’s criticism for PTI chief Imran Khan stems from her ‘limited exposure’.
“We all respect and admire the spirit of empathy in Fatima’s writings for the people of Pakistan but she is still ill-informed about realities prevailing in the country as she has not yet spent enough time here,” Mazari said on Monday.
Bhutto family scion Fatima, speaking at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Sunday, had said that she will never join the PTI and that Imran had ‘coziness with dictatorship’.
Mazari said that the little time that Fatima had spent in Pakistan was highly supervised with limited exposure, which is understandable given the tragedies she has had to face during her formative years.
“Having come to know [Fatima’s father] Murtaza Bhutto and admire him for his commitment to rescue his legacy from the destruction being wrought upon it by President Zardari, it is difficult to critique his young and talented daughter,” Mazari said, but qualified it by saying that Fatima needed to correct her factual inaccuracies.
Defending Imran, Mazari said that he had never ‘cosied up’ to dictators. “During Zia’s black days, Imran was still playing cricket and he has publicly apologised for supporting Musharraf’s referendum,” she said. Imran’s apology earned him the wrath of Musharraf and he was thrown into the jail considered among the worst prisons in the country, she said.
Mazari said that the reference that Fatima made to the bill supporting rape victims was also placed out of context. “The opposition at the time was combined against the excesses of the then PPP government and it was not a question of Imran opposing any measure aimed at supporting women,” she claimed.