Islamabad: Federal Minister for Defence Khawaja Mohammad Asif, who found himself in the centre of a controversy — not for the first time — for the derogatory remarks towards the women parliamentari-ans, clarified his stance on Thursday, saying that it was nothing “gen-der specific”.
In a heated speech during Tuesday’s joint sitting of parliament, the defence minister termed the female senators “koora karkat (trash),” “garbage,” and “leftovers” of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.
“This is the garbage left here, which has to be cleaned. Depraved women should not lecture on chastity,” Asif had said, drawing huge outburst of negative reactions from politicians and commoners alike.
Today, after the Senate passed the Pakistan Army (Amendment) Bill 2023, the defence was allowed to speak in reference to his discrimina-tory remarks. He said that PTI Senator Ali Zafar had objected to the passage of bills on Tuesday, saying that the government was bulldozing the laws.
“I referred to the night when 54 bills were passed in one or two minutes; the people [involved in it] who have done the same should not lecture us on it.
“To dilate this, I made a remark which did not have any gender speci-fication in it. Absolutely not,” Asif said.
He said it was “their” choice if they wanted to see his remark in the wrong context, stressing it was “not a gender-specific remark” on his behalf.
The minister went on to say that when it comes to gender equality in the house, the men parliamentarians never protested the remarks made against them.
“If they claim gender equality, then they should tolerate such refer-ences,” he added.
Hearing this, the opposition members again protested and demanded an apology from Asif.
When Asif was again allowed to speak, he said that he would add only one thing the PTI chief had passed derogatory remarks against Paki-stan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryam Nawaz as well.
“I’ll apologise if they apologise for what their leader said about Mar-yam Nawaz,” Asif said.
He reiterated, it was not a gender-specific remark, and it should have been heard or read in the correct context.
“I did not make any remark against the women. There were men par-liamentarians sitting over there but they didn’t see that these remarks were for them as well,” he said, adding that the remarks were directed collectively towards the entire opposition’s presence.
He said that the remarks were wrongly branded as gender specific.
After this, the Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani ended the debate by saying that the minister had clarified his stance.
However, the PTI senators walked out of the House in protest of Asif’s remarks.
Following the outcry over Asif’s Tuesday remarks, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Sherry Rehman said, she “would have intervened to stop women Parliamentarians from being insulted,” if she had lis-tened to the debate inside the house.
“Of COURSE I was not smiling at the remarks. That was about how pleased I was at the consensus I got in cabinet for the climate plan, which took many nights to get done. Had I heard the remarks of course I would have intervened. My bad,” she wrote on Twitter. –Agencies
