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Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were criticized Monday by politicians and social media users for their stance on issues such as sexual violence and the status of the assassinated al Qaeda leader , Osama bin Laden.
In an interview with the Axios news program on HBO, Khan said men would be affected if women wore very little clothing when asked about what the interviewer said was an epidemic of sexual violence in Africa. Pakistan. Khan preferred not to comment on China’s treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, saying Pakistan prefers to discuss these issues with the Chinese side behind closed doors.
Qureshi, in an interview with Afghan broadcaster Tolo News, dodged the question of whether he considered bin Laden a martyr. Although Pakistan approved a joint statement by China, Russia and the United States in March opposing the restoration of an Islamic emirate by the Taliban in Afghanistan, Qureshi did not give a clear answer when ‘he was asked if he opposes the return of an Islamic emirate.
Qureshi and Khan have both been heavily criticized for their remarks in interviews by Pakistani opposition politicians, civil society activists and social media users.
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When Khan was asked during the Axios interview on HBO why he raised the issue of Islamophobia in the West while remaining silent about the genocide against Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region, he replied: Whatever problems we have with the Chinese, we talk to them behind closed doors. China has been one of our greatest friends in our most difficult times. When we were really in trouble, our economy was in trouble, China came to our rescue.
He added: So we respect what they are and whatever issues we have, we are talking behind closed doors. He also sought to draw attention to the situation in Kashmir, saying: How come this is such a big problem in the Western world? Why are the people of Kashmir ignored? It’s much more relevant to what might happen [with the] Uyghurs, 100,000 Kashmiris were killed.
When asked if it makes him sick to have to keep quiet about the money China has given Pakistan, Khan replied: I look around the world, what is happening in Palestine, Libya, in Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan. Am I going to start talking about everything? I focus on what is happening at my border, in my country.
Khan has faced more criticism for his comments on women and sexual violence. If a woman wears very little clothing, it will have an impact on men, unless they are robots. I mean its common sense, he said.
We don’t have nightclubs here, we don’t have nightclubs, so it’s a completely different society [and] way of life here. So if you increase the temptation in society to the point and all these young people have nowhere to go, it has consequences in society, he added.
Referring to Qureshi and Khan’s remarks, Pakistani journalist Abbas Nasir tweeted: Is OBL a martyr? Hmmm … I’ll let this go. To a question on the blame of rape survivors: Women who wear too little clothing are a temptation. Men are not robots. Two of the best Pakistani minds. The first went to Cambridge, the second to Oxford and graduated from Annabels, London.
Former Pakistani parliamentarian Farhatullah Babar tweeted, How do you explain @SMQureshiPTI’s refusal to call Osama a terrorist even knowing well about the terrorist attacks launched by OBL? Qureshi does not want to ask the question of how a terrorist lived in a cantonment for years. Inevitable question. The answer is clear: complicity or incompetence.
Columnist Mehr Tarar said in a tweet that Prime Minister Khan should refrain from giving his personal explanations on the increase in cases of sexual abuse and rape in Pakistan. Not a shred of evidence to prove that the clothes have anything to do with the rape cases in Pakistan. I thought he had learned his lesson after the last debacle.
Pakistan People’s Party leader Sherry Rehman, a former ambassador to the United States, also questioned Khan’s remarks. Doesn’t IK know that by saying that women should dress a certain way he is giving oppressors and criminals against women a new narrative to justify their behavior. There is NO justification for a Prime Minister to speak this way. Very irresponsible and condemnable, she tweeted.
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