—– Khawaja Asif attracts flak from PTI after calling party’s women parliamentarians ‘garbage’
ISLAMABAD: Women from the opposition PTI protested in a joint session of Parliament on Tuesday after Defence Minister Khawaja Asif used sexist and derogatory remarks while referring to them — in yet another instance of using offensive language for women politicians.
He made the remarks in response to criticism by parliamentarians — including PTI Senator Ali Zafar — of the manner of legislation in Parliament and the “bulldozing” of bills.
In his address, Asif made a reference to former prime minister Imran Khan, recalling the bulldozing of legislation and the dissolution of the National Assembly during his tenure.
“Depraved women should not lecture on chastity,” he said, following which a woman was heard responding to him in the live broadcast on the ses-sion. To that, Asif said if he says anything else, they would use the “woman card”. “They will say, ’We are women and how he is talking about us.”
At this point, laughter was heard in the House.
Asif then went on to call the women parliamentarians the “remains” and “ruins” of Imran, pointing towards the benches where PTI members were seated, including Senators Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur, Sania Nishtar, Falak Naz Chitrali and Fawzia Arshad.
“This is the garbage left behind” by the PTI chief, “which has to be cleaned”, he added.
This drew a strong reaction from the PTI women parliamentarians who stood up from their seats and demanded that Asif take his words back.
Amid loud protest from them, the defence minister continued with his address, saying, “He (Imran) doesn’t have the courage to appear in courts to-day … And they defend him. How brave and courageous will be a person who is defended by women?”
Speaking after Asif, Senator Taimur said only one’s moral character and conduct differentiated people.
“I was worried at the language being used by such senior political figures, I’ve never heard such words in my house.”
She said it was “sad” that fellow MNAs had used words such as “garbage” and “barking”.
“We don’t respect someone else when we don’t consider our own self to be respectable,” Taimur added.
For his part, the NA speaker called for order in the House and the word “garbage” was expunged from Asif’s speech.
There was no strong condemnation of the remarks during the session from any of the members apart from those belonging to the PTI.
Notably, PPP’s Sherry Rehman was sitting just a row behind Asif and remained busy conversing with Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar for the most part and laughed at one point. However, it was not clear whether she was laughing at Asif’s remarks.
Making this observation, PTI’s Farrukh Habib questioned why Rehman and other women MNAs from the treasury benches stayed silent at Asif’s remarks.
He also called out Asif for repeatedly being offensive towards women.
Meanwhile, the PTI termed the remarks “absolutely shameful”.
The party said in a statement that the defence minister’s remarks were a a clear attempt to “depoliticise women”. –Agencies
