Shameful Pattoki incident

• State’s responsibility

Maryam Nawaz did a far better face-saving job after the shameful Pattoki woman harassment incident than Rana Sanaullah – asking CM Shahbaz to take decisive action instead of piling the rot on PTI, as usual. Yet whatever action the CM takes will deliver short-term results at best, since this has now clearly become a deep rooted societal issue which can only be effectively rooted out by effective, progressive education. Whether or not the men assaulting, even injuring, the lady – who can clearly be seen in the video footage – were PML-N activists or outside saboteurs, they were able to get away conveniently without any of the many thousand people present apprehending them.

This has hurt PML-N as well as Pakistan’s image in a number of ways. The ruling party takes much pride in its conservative outlook, and often boasts a better treatment of women at its rallies than PTI. To imply that such behaviour started in PTI rallies will, in turn, hurt PML-N itself. Why, for example, allow a disliked (by them) feature of a party they dislike to be adopted within their own fold? And, as always, there’s no extent to the damage such news stories do to our image internationally.

We are already under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. From terrorist safe havens to money laundering to unsafe minorities to women rights; we are, more often than not, the subject of criticism in the international media. And, typically, whenever such issues crop up our instinctive response is to brush them under the carpet instead of accepting, understanding and overcoming them. It is, at the end of the day, the responsibility of the government to protect not just everybody’s rights but also the country’s image. By that count the Pattoki incident presents a dual problem for PML-N. How it handles such issues will, of course, cast a shadow on the election as well.