Tag: Prime Minister Imran Khan

  • ‘PM calling OBL a martyr was a slip of the tongue’: Fawad Chaudhry

    Prime Minister Imran Khan referring to slain Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a “martyr” last year was a “slip of the tongue”, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry clarified in Geo News programme, ‘Jirga’.

    “Pakistan has voted in the UN on the war on terror [against militants], we are a voter on a [UN] list that declared Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda terrorists,” said Fawad Chaudhry.

    “Pakistan has sacrificed the most in the war against terrorism,” Chaudhry added.

    In an interview with Afghanistan’s Tolo News, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi skipped a question when asked if Osama bin Laden was a martyr. Qureshi paused for a few seconds and then said, “I will let that pass.”

    Senior Afghan journalist Lotfullah Najafizada had originally asked Qureshi about PM Khan calling Osama bin Laden a martyr. The foreign minister responded that the PM was quoted out of context. “Out of context. He was quoted out of context. And, a particular section of the media played it up.

    When asked to comment on why the foreign minister hesitated in answering a question on the premier’s statement on bin Laden, Fawad Chaudhry said Shah Mahmood Qureshi wanted to put the issue behind him and move forward.

    Addressing the National Assembly in June last year, PM Khan recalled how the Americans had conducted an operation in Abbottabad and “killed Osama Bin Laden — martyred him”.

  • Sympathising with the rapist

    Sympathising with the rapist

    My first introduction to the concept of victim blaming came about through an American TV show. Watching it on Star Network in the late 90s, I saw an episode where a lawyer struts about court carrying a slinky black dress a rape victim had been wearing when she was assaulted, blaming her choice of attire for being attacked. He wins the case. By the end of the episode, the victim had committed suicide, the assaulter was honing in on another girl and the lawyer was in deep remorse.

    If only real life was as neatly wrapped up as fiction is.

    Remorse is a feeling alien to Prime Minister Imran Khan. He is the ultimate alpha male, the kind that hunkers down on his beliefs, however much to the contrary the evidence may be. For such men, defending their statements becomes a matter of pride. Any admission that they were wrong or are better informed now would be a blow to their self-respect. Steadfastness to the wrong ideas is problematic even for a layman. For the prime minister of a country where sexual assault is almost endemic, it is disastrous.

    This stubbornness to continue to talk about what women wear stems from a deeper problem.

    Victim blaming is the easy way out for a national leader. He or she blames the victim for not being careful enough, or for not wearing the right clothes or flaunting their wealth, thus placing the onus of in ensuring a crime free society on the people. It absolves the ruler form the messier business of actually preventing crime. In Pakistan, that would have entailed wrangling in the mud with uncaring law enforcing agencies such as the police, the mine-trapped reckoning with the judiciary on inability to convict rapists, the stressful task of finding more funds for medical kits and trained personnel in public hospitals and the bureaucratic nightmare of somehow ensuring that all victims get legal representation. This is just too much work.

    Much more difficult than selling the utopian fantasy of a just and fair society where the consequences of your actions carry retribution from your fellow citizens.

    A less discussed aspect of Imran Khan’s statement is that in talking about women’s attire, he perhaps unintentionally but most assuredly displays empathy for the perpetrators. In effect, we are asked to examine the rapist’s feelings. We are required to take a deeper look at how he is not a “robot”. We are expected to understand how he was overwhelmed by his desires. We are called upon to reflect upon the society in which he lives. We must think of what compels that man to attack. The rapist almost becomes a victim himself, a casualty of the fierce desires that overtook him.

    There is no other way of putting this: we are being asked to be sympathetic to the rapist’s predicament.

    The whole saga of rape then becomes the simple matter of attributing blame to a man’s characteristics. External matters such as ensuring justice and punishment, well within the prime minister’s powers, simply fall to the wayside. The government is not responsible if a man could not control himself. But Bollywood and Hollywood surely are.

    Too often, assault turns into an inquisition about the victim. What they were wearing, what time they had ventured out, what they were doing on that particular day and how they had lived their life till then. From the most developed countries to the least , the conversation about a high-profile rape or assault centres around a victim’s personal life. The personal choices that led them to this point, if you may.

    We saw this when former CCPO Lahore, Umer Sheikh, blamed the victim of the motorway rape for not checking the fuel in her car and for selecting a deserted highway to drive home. After much uproar, Umer Sheikh apologised for his comments. Imran Khan has yet to do so. Anyone waiting for “I am sorry” from the prime minister will wait in vain.

    Alpha males do not apologise.

  • Rape apology is not ‘common sense’

    Rape apology is not ‘common sense’

    A video of a TV talk show host recently went viral in which he was comparing women with ‘toffees. He said that if you left an unwrapped candy on the road for an hour, nobody would eat it because it would have been attacked by viruses, bacteria, germs, flies, mosquitoes, etc. He made this comparison in response to the backlash that Prime Minister Imran Khan is facing after his recent interview where he blamed women for sexual violence. When journalist Jonathan Swan asked PM Khan about sexual violence in Pakistan and if he thought that what women wear has any effect and if that’s part of this temptation, PM replied: “If a woman is wearing very few clothes it will have an impact on the man unless they are robots. It’s common sense.”

    It is not common sense to blame the victim for a sexual crime; it is not common sense to blame women for being raped instead of blaming the real culprit, i.e. the rapist; it is not common sense to tell women what to wear; it is not common sense that the prime minister of a country would issue a rape apology instead of responding to the question by simply saying that no, women’s clothes have nothing to do with rapes or sexual crimes. Period. When the prime minister tries to equate women’s clothes, it is not just irresponsible but also has far-reaching consequences. When people question victims of sexual assault about what they were wearing, it is an affront to all the survivors, dead and alive. It was also quite sad to see three women MNAs defending PM’s rape apology. We understand that it is their job to defend their party and leadership but it would have been better if they had just remained quiet if they could not condemn this statement.

    PM Khan’s comments are not just triggering for all victims and survivors of sexual abuse but are downright insulting. What was a six-month old baby wearing when they were raped, what was little Zainab wearing when she was raped, what was the boy in the madrassa wearing that ‘tempted’ Mufti Aziz, what were dead women wearing in their graves when someone dug out their bodies to rape them? Rape is not about lust. It is about power, humiliation, control. Rape is a violent crime, which has nothing to do with the way anyone dresses. In the United States, a Federal Commission on Crime of Violence study found that most convicted rapists could not remember what their victims were wearing. This is just a myth perpetuated by many, including the TV talk show host who thinks women are somehow candies or PM Khan who thinks women’s clothes somehow tempt men unless those men are ‘robots’ who do not act after being ‘tempted’.

    Rape apology in any form is unacceptable. We hope that the PM will realise his mistake and not repeat it because such comments do not make women feel safe, at all. 

  • ‘Pakistan wants a civilised relationship with the US’: PM Khan

    Prime Minister Imran Khan recently gave an interview to The New York Times about Pakistan’s planned future strategy once the United States (US) leaves Afghanistan and said that in the past, the US kept expecting more from Pakistan, while previous governments “tried to deliver what they were not capable of”.

    The interview was published on June 25, when US President Joe Biden had his first face-to-face meeting with his Afghan counterpart, Ashraf Ghani, at the White House.

    Replying to a question related to Pakistan’s future relationship with the US after the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, PM Khan said that Pakistan has always had a closer relationship with the United States than neighbouring India.

    “After 9/11, Pakistan again opted to join the US war on terror. Now, after the US leaves Afghanistan, basically Pakistan would want a civilised relationship, which you have between nations, and we would like to improve our trading relationship with the US,” he said.

    Mr Khan recalled that Pakistan has had a closer relationship with the United States than other nations in the region, such as India, and was a US partner in the war against terrorism, an argument used by previous Pakistani rulers as well without much success.

    “Now, after the US leaves Afghanistan, basically Pakistan would want a civilised relationship, which you have between nations, and we would like to improve our trading relationship with the US,” the prime minister replied.

    “Unfortunately, the relationship during the war on terror was a bit lopsided,” he said, adding, “It was a lopsided relationship because [the] US felt that they were giving aid to Pakistan, they felt that Pakistan then had to do US’s bidding. And what Pakistan did in terms of trying to do the US bidding cost Pakistan a lot … 70,000 Pakistanis died, and over $150 billion were lost to the economy because there were suicide bombings and bombs going on all over the country.”

    Asked if Pakistan was still using its leverage with the Taliban to move the peace talks towards a deal, Mr Khan said: “Pakistan has used the maximum leverage it could on the Taliban.”

    The prime minister said Pakistan has been emphasising to the Taliban that they should not go for a military victory because it would only lead to a protracted civil war. And since the Taliban are primarily a Pashtun movement, this will have two effects: Another influx of refugees into Pakistan and upset Pakistan’s efforts to lift its economy through trade, he explained.

    ‘We have signed very good trade deals with the Central Asian republics, but we can only go there through Afghanistan. If there is a civil war, all that goes down the drain,’ he said.

    “Let me assure you, we will do everything except use military action against the Taliban. I mean, we will do everything up to that,” Mr Khan said, adding: “All sections of our society have decided that Pakistan will take no military action.”

    The premier was also questioned whether Indo-Pakistan relations would improve if the Modi government leaves power. In response, he said that he “knows India better than any other Pakistani”.

    He said that he has had “love and respect from India [more] than anyone because cricket is a big sport”.

    “And the best way would be if India and Pakistan had a normal, civilised trading relationship. It would benefit both countries,” the PM said he told Modi.

    “So we tried. Didn’t get anywhere. I think that it is a particular ideology of the (Hindu nationalist group) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which Narendra Modi belongs to, which just came up against a brick wall. And therefore the answer to your question is yes. Had there been another Indian leadership, I think we would have had a good relationship with them. And yes, we would have resolved all our differences through dialogue.”

    When asked if Pakistan would consider it an Indian win if Kashmir’s status quo remains the same, PM Imran Khan said that it would be a “disaster for India.”

    “[That is because] it will just mean that this conflict festers on and on. And so as long as it festers, it’s going to stop there being any relationship — normal relationship — between Pakistan and India.”

    The premier was questioned about Pakistan’s relationship with China and how it affects both the US and India. In response, he said that he finds it “very odd” that China and the US would become great rivals. 

  • ‘If the US President doesn’t want to talk with Pakistan, Goodluck, no one is waiting here’: Moeed Yusuf

    ‘If the US President doesn’t want to talk with Pakistan, Goodluck, no one is waiting here’: Moeed Yusuf

    National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf said that if US President Joe Biden doesn’t want to talk with Pakistan, then “good luck” as no one is waiting here for his call either.

    Speaking on Geo News programme, ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’, Moeed Yusuf said that the current Afghanistan situation is not good.

    Yusuf complained about the lack of coordination among the Pakistani and US officials in Afghanistan, saying we came to know about the withdrawal of foreign troops from the media.

    “We don’t want anyone to insult the US but if the finger is pointed at Pakistan, then it will be responded to,” Yusuf said.

    He was responding to a question asked about Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan’s comments about Biden. In a recent interview, PM Khan had said that US President Joe Biden has not spoken to him since assuming office as president.

    “Whenever he has time he can speak to me. At the moment, clearly, he has other priorities,” he had told Axios anchor Jonathan Swan

    Yusuf said Pakistan’s prime minister was of the view that a military solution was not possible in Afghanistan, adding that had that advice been taken, things would have been much different.

    “Everyone wants stability in the country,” he said.

  • PM was informed about the meeting between Asif Ali Zardari and Pervaiz Elahi

    PM was informed about the meeting between Asif Ali Zardari and Pervaiz Elahi

    Speaker Punjab Assembly Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said on Thursday that Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan was informed about his meeting with Asif Ali Zardari.

    Speaking to anchorperson Muneeb Farooq on Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk,’ the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) leader said his party is a coalition partner of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and had never betrayed their ally.

    “Before going to see Zardari sahab, I asked Moonis [Elahi] to inform PM Imran Khan about it [the meeting],” Elahi told Muneeb Farooq when asked about rumours following his surprise meeting with the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader.

    Elahi said that he went to thank Zardari for his cooperation in holding unopposed Senate elections in Punjab.

    “I had talked to him before the polls on Nawaz Sharif’s request that the PPP should withdraw its candidates. We knew what were the weaknesses of all parties and what was their due share in the Senate seats. So on the basis of it, Tariq Bashir Cheema, Moonis Elahi, and I worked on it and thankfully we achieved the goal of holding an unopposed election in Punjab,” added Elahi. 

    Earlier, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry had confirmed on the Geo News show ‘Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Sath’ that Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi had informed the government about his meeting with Asif Ali Zardari.

    The meeting between the two leaders that took place earlier this week at Lahore’s Bilawal House. The Punjab government termed the meeting between the two leaders as a “storm in a teacup”.

  • PM Khan asks Bill Gates to set up a Microsoft incubation lab in Pakistan

    PM Khan asks Bill Gates to set up a Microsoft incubation lab in Pakistan

    Prime Minister Imran Khan (PM) encouraged Microsoft to expand its footprint in Pakistan and set up a Microsoft incubation lab in the country.

    PM spoke with Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), in a telephonic conversation on Thursday.

    During the phone call, views were exchanged on the ongoing polio eradication campaign in the country as well as on Pakistan’s response to the public health challenges arising from the Covid-19 pandemic.

    PM Khan reaffirmed that polio eradication remained a key national priority for the government and earnest efforts were afoot to further intensify the anti-polio campaign across the country, despite the challenges imposed by the Covid-19 crisis, in order to achieve a polio-free Pakistan.

    Bill Gates expressed his appreciation for PM Khan’s leadership for this national cause. He added that while progress is encouraging, keeping up pressure will be the key to ending transmission for good.

  • ‘Punjab police will soon arrest culprits behind Lahore blast’: Sheikh Rasheed

    ‘Punjab police will soon arrest culprits behind Lahore blast’: Sheikh Rasheed

    Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed on Thursday said that the Punjab Police were close to arresting the culprits responsible for the Johar Town blast.

    The minister tweeted that officials had achieved “great success” during the investigation process. “Punjab police will soon arrest the suspects and give good news to the people,” he said.

    Rasheed said that Pakistan’s enemies could not tolerate the economic and political stability in the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan and had started adopting “terrorist routes”.

    A powerful blast near the residence of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed killed three people and injured 24 others, including a police constable.

  • ‘Osama Bin Laden is a thing of the past, my focus is on the present and future’: Shah Mahmood Qureshi

    ‘Osama Bin Laden is a thing of the past, my focus is on the present and future’: Shah Mahmood Qureshi

    Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Tuesday appeared on Geo News programme “Aaj Shahzeb Khanzada Kay Saath” and said that former Al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden (OBL) “is a thing of the past and my focus is on the present and the future”.

    Qureshi was asked once more about why it is that he, along with Prime Minister Imran Khan, avoid clarifying whether OBL is a martyr or terrorist.

    “Osama Bin Laden is a thing of the past. I am not concerned with the past. You are lost in the past. My focus is on the present and the future,” said Qureshi.

    Khanzada explained that he was asking for clarity because Pakistan paid a huge price for confusion in the past when it was said that there is a “dual policy with sympathy for terrorists”.

    “I wish to bring you out of the past,” Qureshi said, in response. “My friend, I wish to bring you out of the past. And I tell you, you must think about the future. That future will impact Pakistan, it’s economy and its society. We are absolutely clear on this. We are against terrorism.”

    Qureshi further added that PM Khan takes inspiration from the country’s founder, Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.

    Qureshi was also asked why Pakistan is giving confused statements, when in the backdrop of the US defence secretary’s words about Afghanistan’s soil being used against the US by Daesh or Al-Qaeda in two years’ time, such remarks could come back to haunt us.

    To this Qureshi said: “No, no, no, no. We have great clarity on this. We will never want Afghan or Pakistan soil to be used against a third country, let alone America. I would never want it to be even used against any of our neighbours. Not at all.”

    “We have great clarity. We do not and never will support terrorist organisations and will never want for them to gain such power or importance that they become capable of striking the mainland, some other country, or some coalition partner who have done so much for Afghanistan,” added Qureshi.

    “We will have to admit one thing. The coalition there invested a great deal [in society]. They have invested billions of dollars, established institutions, promoted education, taught them governance. Who will want them to come under attack?” he said.

    In an interview with Afghanistan’s Tolo News, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi skipped a question when asked if Osama bin Laden was a martyr. Qureshi paused for a few seconds and then said, “I will let that pass.”

  • ‘The liberal brigade is misrepresenting facts’: PTI MNAs defend PM Khan’s comments on rape

    ‘The liberal brigade is misrepresenting facts’: PTI MNAs defend PM Khan’s comments on rape

    Female leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Tuesday defended Prime Minister Imran Khan’s comments on sexual violence and temptation. Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul, Parliamentary Secretary for Law Maleeka Ali Bokhari and MNA Kanwal Shauzab held a press conference and came out in support of PM Khan and called out the “liberal brigade” for misrepresenting facts.

    Gul claimed that the premier was a “symbol of women empowerment”.

    “For the first time in Pakistan, five women ministers are sitting in the federal cabinet. This means that if there is a symbol of women empowerment in Pakistan, it is Prime Minister Imran,” Gul said.

    Gul added, “My culture has given me respect, Islam has taught me modesty. Do not try to distort the things said in the Holy Quran.”

    Bokhari said that she was proud to be a member of parliament under the leadership of “a man who prioritised the protection of women and children”.

    “You can’t distort a question and determine whether or not the premier cares about protecting women and children. You need to see what the government has done,” she said pointing to the establishment of special courts for deciding rape cases and anti-rape crisis cells at hospitals.

    “The Prime Minister has set aside Rs100 million in the budget for implementation of the anti-rape law,” Bokhari added.

    “We are strong women and we have been strengthened by our leader Imran Khan,” Bokhari said.

    “Under PM Imran’s leadership, the two-finger test was abolished,” Bokhari said. “Because we realise the difficulties that women have to face, we ensured that they get their inheritance rights. No other premier has called for such a law,” she said.

    MNA Kanwal Shauzab reiterated that PM Khan had empowered women in true sense.

    Quoting a verse from the Holy Quran, which she said was the essence of the prime minister’s statement, she remarked that those contesting the premier’s statement were actually contesting Allah.

    Shauzab, meanwhile, believes that if you are among those who are “fighting” against the premier’s statement in his HBO interview, then you are “disagreeing with the orders of Allah”.

    She said PM Khan explained the commands of Allah regarding women.

    “We are proud to live in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” Shauzab said, adding that our society does not accept obscenity.

    Earlier in the day, another PTI MNA, Aliya Hamza Malik, too, spoke in support of the premier. In an appearance on Geo Pakistan on Tuesday, Malik urged “liberals” to listen to the premier’s statement before critiquing it.

    She said the premier made a comparison between the East and the West when speaking about rape cases.

    PM Khan has made strict laws for abusers, she said, adding that the state is fulfilling its responsibility and it is our job to make strict legislation.