Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, while talking about the recent Taliban’s restrictions on Afghan women, stated that the Taliban’s ‘retrogressive thinking’ is dangerous for Pakistan, reports Dawn.
While addressing a ceremony in Islamabad, the minister said, “Saying that women can’t travel alone or go to schools and colleges — this kind of retrogressive thinking is a danger for Pakistan.”
“You see that two extremist regimes have cropped up on right [India] and left [Afghanistan] of Pakistan. On one side there is Afghanistan where the Taliban have arrived. We want to fully help the Afghan people”, he added.
Fawad said, “We have had failures and successes but till now Pakistan is that bright hope in this region which while remaining amid these extremes can emerge out from them.”
Chaudhry’s statement has come after Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities’ announcement about women who seek to travel long distances should not be offered transport if they are not wearing hijab or not accompanied by a close male relative.
Furthermore, he pointed out that extremists in the country and said, “Quaid-e-Azam never saw Pakistan as a religious country and all these people who today on his name are fooling the people that the meaning of an Islamic country was a religious country — this was entirely not the case.”
While talking about the Sialkot lynching incident, Fawad said, “You saw the whole of Pakistan was united and condemned that incident. This is happening every day in India with Muslims and no one is bothered.”
Chaudhry stressed that Pakistan’s purpose was “preserving minority rights and safeguarding them”.
