- PPP lawmaker asks Opp leader not to comment against women
Leader of Opposition Syed Khurshid Shah had a bad day in the National Assembly on Thursday after women lawmakers of his own Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) party took him to task for his sexist remarks against fellow (female) lawmakers.
While Shah was making a speech, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq asked some female lawmakers not to engage in personal discussion loudly in the House as the opposition leader was making a speech. Hastened to make a remark, Shah said that the women lawmakers should not be asked to keep quite. “Mr Speaker, don’t ask them to keep quite. They will fall ill if they don’t talk,” he said.
This remark however did not go down well with the women lawmakers in the opposition. In response to the opposition leader, the speaker in a light mood responded, “You are hurting your privilege by speaking in this way about women.” However, some lawmakers showed reservations on these remarks.
MNA Nafeesa Shah of the PPP even raised on her seat and asked the opposition leader not to comment in this way about women. She was also supported by Dr Shireen Mazari of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and some other lawmakers.
In her tweet, PPP leader Aseefa Bhutto demanded of Khurshid Shah to tender an apology over his remarks against the women parliamentarians. “Far too many times, this has happened. Insensitive remarks against women in politics have reoccurred in the parliament,” she said. “Such remarks should not be tolerated. Hope he (Shah) respectfully apologises.”
DISAPPEARANCE: For the second consecutive day, the PPP continued its protest over disappearance of its party members. PPP, the major opposition party, after staging walkout from proceedings even kept in wait for half-an-hour for concerned (interior) minister outside the House. But, both interior minister and state minister for interior did not appear in the House. “We [the PPP] members will wait for half an hour outside the house for minister concerned to assure us about presenting missing persons before the court,” Shah said on a point order.
During the proceedings, Speaker Ayaz asked Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab to bring the minister concerned in the house. The opposition leader warned the government not to violate constitution. “There is need to respect the parliament. Don’t make this parliament a debating club,” he said, criticising the ministers for allegedly ignoring this important matter.
“These missing members were not picked up by Islamabad or Sindh police… You [the government) need to understand the issue and assure us to present missing persons before the court,” he said, saying that it was violation of the constitution as the missing members were still not presented before the magistrate.
